Council calls monorail plan crucial to redevelopment

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1998 | 11:21 a.m.

A monorail system is crucial to the success of redevelopment efforts in downtown Las Vegas, City Council members told transportation officials Monday during a report on the planned fixed guideway and monorail system.

Representatives of the Clark County Regional Transportation Commission and the MGM Grand-Bally's Limited Liability Co. presented an update on recent monorail developments, including the County Commission's Dec. 2 approval of a monorail franchise.

"I think that the long-term economic health of downtown will be dependent on a monorail system," Mayor Jan Laverty Jones said.

Lee Gibson, planning manager for the RTC, said the project could ultimately include stops at Cashman Field, a spur to the Union Pacific property and an extension to the city's northwest.

Richard Goecke, the city's director of Public Works, said two alignments in the northwest would be most beneficial. The first would follow U.S. 95 out to the Town Center and the other would serve the hospital district and then use Rancho Drive to reach the Town Center.

Preliminary ridership estimates for those lines are about 28,000 a day. That estimate, however, does not take into consideration commercial development of Town Center and development of the Union Pacific property, according to Goecke.

It would cost between $665 million and $720 million to build those lines.

The overall system would connect downtown to the Stratosphere Tower and Strip hotels to the south. Studies are currently being conducted. If the system is granted final environmental impact study approve in 2000, the system could be operational at the end of 2003.

It is estimated 93,000 riders would take the monorail system from a downtown station each day, with more during special events.

Currently, 40,000 people ride Citizens Area Transit bus route 41 from the Downtown Transportation Center each day, Gibson said.

Councilman Arnie Adamsen said he did not care whether the system is primarily privately or publicly-funded.

"I just want a system, the sooner, the better," Adamsen said.