Las Vegas Sun Newstransportation:
Salvaging the monorail
There’s still a way to make the formerly bankrupt people mover a useful tool here
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The Las Vegas Monorail pulls into the Convention Center station, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011.
Monday
19 November 2012
1:55 a.m.
Richard N. Velotta
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It’s official. The Las Vegas Monorail Co. is out of bankruptcy.
The last steps of the process occurred with little fanfare this month, and the city’s most controversial mass transportation system continues to chug along its elevated track on the east side of the Strip.
Ridership was down 12.8 percent in the third quarter of 2012 compared with the same quarter a year ago, but because the company restructured its fares, revenue for the period fell only 4.1 percent, to $4.8 million for the quarter. For the year to date, ridership was down 18.7 percent, to 3.1 million people, and revenue was down 19.1 percent, to $14.1 million.
The company cited the May 2011 closure of the Sahara, the northern terminus of the route, as a big reason for the decline.
But in a recent interview with the monorail’s top executives, I sensed cautious optimism for the system’s future. And although countless critics have savaged the monorail and want to see it torn down, it’s a system worth keeping, and even building on.
Even the toughest critics say the monorail would have much more value if it connected the Strip to McCarran International Airport. But some of the city’s tourism leaders see another potential growth strategy.
The monorail is most useful during major conventions. With parking at a premium or nonexistent during big events such as the International Consumer Electronics Show, the Las Vegas Convention Center monorail stop is a choice alternative for delegates.
How great would it be if the other major convention centers in town had similar monorail stops?
Based on the current route structure, it’s not a stretch to consider it.
The existing track winds past the Sands Exposition Center at Koval Lane and Sands Avenue (a street that changes names three times in a mile). How tough would it be to engineer a monorail stop between the existing Convention Center and the Flamingo/Imperial Palace stations?
The bigger challenge would be to convince Las Vegas Sands to chip in to pay for the station.
The other major convention center is at Mandalay Bay. While there’s already a monorail-like people mover along the front of the Excalibur, the Luxor and Mandalay Bay, it may be easier to engineer a route that continues south from the MGM Grand before swinging west to Mandalay Bay. If a stop were built somewhere on the south end of the property, the route could even be continued across Interstate 15 to the presumed location of the XpressWest train station.
Ridership should increase if the convention centers are connected. And that could bring in the necessary revenue to convince investors to extend the monorail to McCarran, presumably on a circuitous route that would pass the Thomas & Mack Center and the proposed UNLV Now football stadium.
A route that connects two major transportation facilities, the airport, a train station and some of the city’s largest traffic generators — our convention centers and sports facilities at UNLV, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and, if it is built, Caesars Entertainment’s arena — would make the monorail a useful transportation system that even locals would use.
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This is a no brainer to make it work and profitable.
However, the special interests in Las Vegas gravel over the money from transporting people to and from the airport.
The problem with this groveling IS THAT IT DOES NOT CONSIDER THE TOURIST.
Everything we do to make this town more tourist friendly - means they can spend more money on other things - which will generate more jobs.
Time to grow up Las Vegas and become a 21 st century city.
Exactly how many "executives" do you need to run 3 miles of monorail track?
I'd love to know what each one of these "executives" are actually doing from 8am-5pm Monday thru Friday. There cannot be that much work overseeing such a small line.
Dear Richard. Do You Live in Las Vegas? Have you been down to the monorail? Your article presumes the answer is "Hell No" to the above questions.
First up, you have the same thieves running it now as you did before BK. You think they have changed their spots just because of the BK??
These are the same rocket scientists who thought raising the price of a ticket would increase ridership!
Go down to a Monorail station during CES or any major event and see how many stations are closed for maintenance or the machines not working. Not to mention the long lines of people trying to get thru the one working turnstile (and not a maintenance man in sight) .
Build it further south? Like they did the current track layout means the stations would be in the middle of nowhere, a half mile away from anything resembling a casino or worthy event stop.
You want to connect it to Harry Reid's choo-choo to nowhere? Want to deal with that political mess?? You think Harry will let these minor league tricksters play with the professional league tricksters without a franchise fee??
Finally: The plans are already there for a leg to McCarren. They have been since almost the beginning. But are being stopped by two problems. One is money. But the bigger one is the cartel known as the Taxi Cab families.
The taxi cab cartel makes OPEC look like boy scouts...
For the Monorail to succeed, it needs people in charge who know how to do it. These guys aren't it.
Without commenting on the competency of Monorail mangement I think the premise of Richard's article is valid: if the monorail served more populous locations like more meeting places and especially McCarran, it would succeed. Perhaps to the point it could more readily afford more maintenance people which is a significant issue. Mark is right about the taxi's - for obvious reasons they hate the monorail and anything that might improve it.
Unless the monorail is owned by a casino monopoly or the taxi cartel its got no chance of staying alive. Unless they can determine its a gold mine they won't take it away from who ever controls it. Get the point.
Plain and simple, it needs to go all the way to the airport. But obviously the cab companies are stopping it. Can someone in charge tell me why they can?
Corrupt Las Vegas/Nevada politics..that's why it didn't go to the airport. It's not about what is good for Las Vegas longterm, it's about the cabbie cartel having the power to kill the airport link.
The only possible logical remedy is having a connection to the airport. Everything else is a band-aid approach.
I'd love to know exactly how many "executives" are wandering around at the corporate offices each day? Doing what? Brainstorming for 8 hours in a conferecen room stocked with food and drink.
As far as I know you have the same guy in charge that was taking super expensive trips to China as "fact finding" missions.
It's 3 freaking miles of line!!
Exactly who are these people who would want to drag their bags onto the Monorial at the airport and then drag them off the Monorial at the back end of some casino and walk the mile or so to that casino's front desk?
Plus the Monorial only connects to the back-end of some like 6 or less casino's.
People with brains will ride the free hotel van service to get their bags to some 100+ casinos on the strip.
Why is this so hard to understand. Every successful mass transit operation in the world relies on a mix of Locals and Tourists. The Monorail will never survive on Tourists alone. Two solutions would help the monorail immensely. 1) Creating a feeder line or lines so people who live on the east side can commute to work at those properties. 2) Connect it to the airport.
IF a UNLV stadium is built then they could connect there as well.
Exactly who are these people who would want to drag their bags onto the Monorial at the airport and then drag them off the Monorial at the back end of some casino and walk the mile or so to that casino's front desk?
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heaven forbid someone can't pull their wheeled luggage behind them for a leisurely walk to the front desk. Lazy, obese nation we've become. What next, golf carts from the taxi drop-off to the front desk?
I think this idea does have some potential. A monorail that connected more convention halls than just the LVCC would obviously bring in more business. In addition, if that train to SoCal does become a reality, I think it would serve the monorail great justice to have a stop there, it would connect passengers directly to the strip. Also, a stop at the airport is crucial and if there was a stop at the airport, then it would also be benificial to have a stop at UNLV, especially when the stadium there is built, that would help attendance even more when it comes to events there. These are all places tourist will be using so those stops would definitely help. Another stop that I think would be imperative, is a stop down on Fremont. That would connect the two hubs of the valley's economy and would only increase business downtown. Downtown has the new performing arts center, outlet mall, FSE, and the new gay super club opening up. Plus, as the city does become more urbanized, and people start living downtown, the monorail would help serve locals living in that area, and the other areas around the monorail stops. For instance, a monorail at UNLV would serve the residents living near there like the students. They'd be able to go party/work on the strip, downtown, whatever, and not have to worry about drunk driving or any of that.
I love the idea of the monorail which is superior to light rail in a million ways, smoother, faster, with a less expensive operating expense. The hang-up is that it's a wasted idea, unless it connects to the airport. The airport commission could aviod building another on-site parking structure by doing what I've seen in Europe and Asia; you put up a large, and much less expensive off site parking area, not far from a good freeway connection, that is one of the first stops leaving the airport and employees, passengers, merely get on the airport train, step down the ramps and hop to their cars, freeing up space in the airport area. Las Vegas's main terminal is a complete mess traffic wise, piled with polluting taxi's vans and private cars, a direct line to the strip and convention centers would not only be a big sales point for companies participating in conventions but folks on vacation would love it, again the traffic is reduced in the adjacent roads on both sides of the terminal building the Strip is again open and freer without all the vehicles. Even if the fare from the airport to hotels and the park and ride facility was $10, I'd go for it about 30 times a year. you can't tell me it wouldn't be a money maker, especially if the airport and monorail company were to jointly build it so it would be part of the structure with easy access. I aviod McCarren like the plaque for connections, I hate the slots racket, the stuffy low ceilings, stale air, and lack of anything to make the wait easier, like nice and reasonably priced snack places, or intersting little shops in the gating areas. If I had 1 hour to 2 hours and if the monorail was operating, i'd swing into town and spend some money. As is, you have the 1970'ish crowded drives around the airport, noise and inconvenience. I can't figure out why a city that is such an entertainment capital makes it so difficult to get from the airport to your hotel, when it's so close, you could take the monorail and drastically improve the mess.
Sell the monorail for scrap metal.
The monorail that charges too much and goes nowhere.
It is the Taxicab auth that causes all the BS in this city. They cause all the traffic, they are horribly inconsiderate and dangerous drivers. Taxis control all transportation that CAT doesn't have their claws into. The ONLY reason the monorail is anything but a complete success is those two groups. They control/destroy everything in this town.
The monorail HAS to connect to the airport. Mr. Velotta has a cool idea he is sharing with us but it is just another opinion. We need public trans. The monorail is here. It needs to be finished. The Taxi authority and the CAT people need to stop playing in others kids sandboxes. Oh by the way, have you read the side of a cab lately?: it said $0.20 per 1/13 of a mile? They charge by the 13th of a mile? Are you kidding me?