Report to RTC studies various mass transit ideas

Jeff Schweers

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 10:32 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission has accepted a report evaluating the different rail technologies available, but held off on selecting one particular technology for a proposed fixed-guideway system.

Several commissioners were concerned that the technology eventually chosen for the $1.1 billion, 18-mile public system would be compatible with a 3-mile, $200 million monorail the Hilton and MGM Grand hotels-casinos are designing.

RTC staff members have recommended going with a light-rail system, a descendent of the street car that runs along a steel rail and is usually powered by an overhead catenary wire.

RTC Planning Manager Lee Gibson told the commission that light rail had the most potential to meet the county's transportation needs because it was less costly to build and maintain and more flexible than the other technologies evaluated.

The other technology options studied were heavy monorail systems, similar to what the Hilton-MGM Grand Limited Liability Corp. is proposing, automated guideway transit, and personal rapid transit.

Gibson said the other technologies are more expensive, have a limited number of vendors who can build and operate them, require exclusive maintenance contracts, and have a limited ability to evacuate cars during emergencies.

He also said monorails and AGTs need more right-of-way than light rails for switching, and monorails don't offer the potential for at-grade operations that light rails do.

Additionally, constructing a walkway to meet federal safety requirements would bring the envelope of a monorail system to within the width of an elevated light rail system, he said.

Proponents of the private monorail said their plan was more in line with the aesthetics and transportation needs of the Strip resort corridor to move tourists from one hotel-casino to another.