RTC narrows mass transit choices to two

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 3:31 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission has narrowed the options for a new transportation system for the downtown corridor to two choices, RTC General Manager Jacob Snow told the Las Vegas City Council Wednesday.

The first option would be a $580 million, 5-mile system to run from Cashman Center to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Estimated ridership by 2020 would be about 64,000 people a day, Snow said. The first option would be totally operated by the public RTC system.

In the second option, the RTC would work with Las Vegas Monorail Partners LLC to operate a transit system running from Cashman Center to the MGM Grand on Tropicana. Connecting the public system to MGM's private monorail would save the RTC an estimated $140 million. The estimated ridership would be 173,000 a day.

Three technologies are under consideration for the system, Snow said: An urban monorail, an automated guideway similar to that now used at McCarran Airport, and a light-rail system.

Snow sought and received a promise of cooperation from the City Council in development of the transit system.

"It all boils down to money," Snow said, explaining that the region is much more likely to get a share of $2 billion in federal funding for urban mass-transit systems such as the guideway project if the city supports the effort.

"The federal government likes these kind of arrangements," he said. "It will enhance our chances of bringing these federal dollars back to Las Vegas."

Snow said he will present a plan to fund the transit system construction at next month's City Council meeting. A draft environmental impact statement for the project should be complete in December; the Federal Transit Administration will let the RTC know next year if it will contribute to the project.

RTC officials hope to break ground on the project sometime in 2001.