From the Senator's Desk . . .
August 21, 2008
Rail has been one of the major drivers in El Paso’s economic growth. Before rail, El Paso was a sleepy town of 736. After rail, in one month from May to June 1881, El Paso’s population jumped from 761 to 1,500.
Written by Senator Eliot Shapleigh, www.shapleigh.org
"Powered by Rail "
From 1881 to 1902, El Paso's street car service consisted of a few modest wooden cars, drivers and sturdy mules—the most famous being Mandy the Mule. At the turn of the last century, El Paso-Juarez was the leading international light rail region, and mules like Mandy were the engines that made it run.
On August 30, 1901, the El Paso Electric Railway Company started operations, running a city streetcar system that grew to 35 miles by 1907. The El Paso Electric Railway Company grew steadily, through World War I and the postwar era, and by 1925 took its name as the El Paso Electric Company.
The first buses to replace streetcars, on the Ysleta line, came in 1925. By 1943, National City Lines—owned by General Motors and Standard Oil—purchased the Transportation Division of the El Paso Electric Co. and shut down the remaining lines, but decided to retain streetcars on the 3.2 mile international line across the border to Juarez.
At the same time, a competing vision of transportation emerged on the American landscape. In 1956, the Interstate Highway System was authorized under President Dwight Eisenhower. Today, with gas prices skyrocketing, and with highway costs inflating 75 percent every five years, forty cities across America are re-thinking that model.
Rail has been one of the major drivers in El Paso’s economic growth. Before rail, El Paso was a sleepy town of 736. After rail, in one month from May to June 1881, El Paso’s population jumped from 761 to 1,500. By 1965, El Paso was America’s third most sprawled city. With gas at 25 cents per gallon, driving and drive-ins made more sense then than now.
Today, gas is almost $4 a gallon. Only eight years ago at the start of George Bush’s first term, gas was $1.40. By 2012, El Pasoans can expect $7 gallon gas—and increased costs for everything from food to concrete whose value is in part linked to transportation costs.
What’s more, by 2015, due to massive increase in West Coast port capacity, El Paso will experience a rise from 45 trains per day to more than 130. With a $6 billion port expansion at Punta Colonet, Mexico and increases at Lazaro Cardenas and Long Beach, the West Coast and US-Mexico border is about to explode with trade by rail.
So what do we do? Meeting the challenge of mobility in the Pass of the North is just as important as meeting the challenge of a new medical school or base realignment. New trade represents new opportunity—and new challenges. How we reduce congestion and pollution, increase trade and mobility will define us against ports all over the Americas.
In Dallas, communities are preparing to invest $5.6 billion into its DART commuter rail system. In Austin, a 32-mile "MetroRail" track is under construction from Leander to downtown. In New Mexico, Governor Bill Richardson has made rail a priority and is working to create a statewide system. In El Paso-Juarez, our international rail system was up and running until Sept. 4, 1974, when a disagreement over tolls ended the service.
Today, El Paso and Texas must lead with rail again.
On August 29th, at 9:00 a.m. join us at City Hall to participate in "Rail in the Pass," the history of rail past and present, and the challenge and opportunity of rail, present and future. How we meet that challenge—and maximize that opportunity will be as important to the next 100 years as rail has been to the last.
Our future is powered by rail!
Eliot Shapleigh
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