McAllen begins free bus route to bring weekend crowds closer to downtown businesses

The latest downtown revitalization effort in McAllen is expected to roll out by mid-June, when a new bus route will begin circulating visitors from Gumwood Avenue, along 15th and 16th Streets, south towards Houston Avenue. 

The move is in response to local businesses asking the city to invest in the heart of McAllen, especially in light of several months of crackdown on the entertainment district. 

The city held meetings with the community, including business owners, to gain insight about what could be done to diversify the type of companies operating across downtown. McAllen hired a consultant to help with the downtown effort, and the bus route is one of the suggestions. 

“We want a downtown where residents can park once, move easily, explore safely, and support local businesses,” said Mario Delgado, transit director for the city of McAllen. “We have people who park in front of the stores because they don’t want to walk, but they can park in the garage and take the trolley [bus] and get around the entirety of downtown without having to move your car again and again.” 

The loop would pass Archer Park, where weekend open-air markets are often held, the nearby mobile food truck park, the McAllen metro bus station, the downtown parking garage, City Hall, and Bicentennial Boulevard south of Business 83. On Saturdays, the city of McAllen hosts Market on Main, a pedestrian-friendly market with hundreds of vendors on a five-block stretch.

The goal is to operate the bus route every 20 to 30 minutes to ensure downtown visitors can park once and explore the entire area without walking long distances in the heat or sitting in traffic waiting for a spot to open so they can park next to their only destination. 

Some city commissioners questioned whether the route’s frequency would be sufficient to reliably move passengers to their destinations, as opposed to walking, and others pushed for more frequent service during the week. 

The new bus route began a dry run on May 29 with plans to operate on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to gather feedback from passengers and business owners alike, and will officially begin on June 19. 

The Market on Main event, for example, is seasonal and typically runs from September to April, often between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., depending on the month. 

McAllen expects to leverage Federal Transit Administration funding by designating its downtown parking garage as a Park & Ride facility, which will cover most of the costs of operating and maintaining the bus garage. It will also unlock more funding for pedestrian-friendly improvements, such as widening sidewalks and streetscaping. 

There are already more investors interested in opening up across downtown, with new restaurants and coffee shops expected to open, said Isaac Tawil, McAllen city manager. 

“One of the things that we heard loud and clear as we worked through some of the challenges that we had in the downtown area was that businesses were looking for the city to put some investment into downtown,” Tawil said. “This is a good place for us to start.”