Rail system for Vegas proposed

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 10:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A rapid-transit rail system from downtown Las Vegas to the rapidly growing northwest neighborhoods would be built under a bill introduced in the Legislature.

Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, the chief author of Assembly Bill 365, said the rail system would cut down on traffic and air pollution.

Collins and Kurt Weinrich, director of the Regional Transportation Commission in Clark County, said the proposal would not conflict with the commission's plans to build a mass-transit system along the Strip.

Weinrich called them both long-term projects and would not compete with each other for federal funds.

The Collins bill, which has 22 co-sponsors, directs the state Transportation Department to build an elevated "fixed guideway system of mass transit" to run parallel to U.S. Highway 95 from Las Vegas Boulevard to Ann Road. Collins said he had no estimate of cost but that the project would be built in phases.

Weinrich said a major study of transportation needs in Southern Nevada included a rail system to the northwest as a long-term solution. Collins said the planned widening of U.S. 95 from six lanes to 10 should include room for mass transit.

"It's looking into the future to provide for the growth of our valley," he said. "While they are doing this revision (widening), they might as well make room for it because it's the thing of the future.

"If we're going to have clean air and people moving from homes to jobs then we're going to have to put a mass-transit system in the Las Vegas Valley," Collins said.

He envisions the system being similar to San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit or BART.

"We're talking about a rail on the side with some stops where people can get in at central parking locations and get off at their job sites downtown," he said.

Congress is writing a new transportation funding formula this year and there will be money for mass-transit systems, which states will be competing for.