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Green with envy in Spruce Park (Photo of the Day: Nob Hill News)

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City Strives for Safer, More Convenient ART Experience

Officials try to move past rocky start, pandemic gut punch

By Damon Scott

One of the ART stations in the Nob Hill area is located on Central Avenue near Bryn Mawr Drive. Officials are focused on safety measures for the system, after weathering early construction and design snafus, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Damon Scott)

Although it’s almost been six years since construction ended on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) system along Central Avenue, for some, its troubled timeline still seems fresh: construction delays, design flaws, an overrun budget, confused motorists and pedestrians, angry business owners (including in Nob Hill) and an initial fleet of defective electric buses.

Many in the Nob Hill area remember the station near Washington Street where a platform was built too close to an intersection, causing buses to enter two lanes of traffic to pick up riders. There were other instances of uneven platforms and inconsistent heights. Mayor Tim Keller, who inherited the project from the Richard J. Berry administration in late 2017, called it “a bit of a lemon” at the time.

Even when ART officially began service on November 30, 2019, the celebration wouldn’t last for long. Just a few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic would decimate ridership numbers and further stress Albuquerque’s struggling local businesses.

Why it’s important

City officials say a robust transit system is an important marker of a city’s overall health. ART has helped to spur some transit-oriented development like the Broadstone Nob Hill apartment development at 4101 Central Ave. NE. Its fleet of 30 buses was designed to transport riders quickly with fewer stops and offer double the capacity (80) than typical ABQ RIDE buses (40). Further, rides on ART represented 30% of the 7.3 million total rides taken on all of the city’s transit options in 2024.

“That’s actually kind of amazing, because it’s only a 10-mile stretch,” Transit Department spokesperson Madeline Skrak said. “We do have a world-class system here and it does get people up and down our most historic and popular bus corridor.”