Recently Ngage NM assisted the South Central Regional Transit District with public outreach and convened over 200 individuals in separate public meetings to discuss the possibility of a passenger rail between Las Cruces and El Paso. Ngage assisted with bringing people to the public meetings and conducting the on-line survey.
The survey received more than 1,000 responses. The response from people throughout the county was overwhelmingly in favor of a rail system. Public transportation is in demand across the county. David Armijo, SCRTD executive director, said “Not to say that we are going to do it tomorrow, but hopefully the next step is for the communities to start a dialogue and see where we want to be in 25 years.” A rail service would be a fixed, permanent anchor (of transportation) and would operate on the same track as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the largest freight railroads in the United States.
The commuter rail study was paid for with state funding from Rep. Jeff Steinborn and other legislators. The funds were received by The South Central Regional Transit District, which hired the Center for Neighborhood Technology to conduct the 15-question online survey.