Funds marked for Strip-downtown rail link

Diana Sahagun

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

A proposal for a two-mile leg linking downtown Las Vegas with the Strip monorail may receive additional funding -- this time $1 million for more preliminary studies.

The city of Las Vegas, the Fremont Street Experience, Boyd Gaming Corp. and the Stratosphere Corp. have tentatively agreed to contribute $250,000 apiece. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the plan Wednesday.

The money would be used for ridership and revenue studies, preliminary engineering, rights-of-way and other contracts.

Last week the Regional Transportation Commission approved $2.1 million for an environmental analysis of the proposed downtown leg, as well as design work for the leg's stations and terminals.

After years of planning, a coalition of Strip properties is nearly ready to break ground on a privately funded, $650 million monorail system that would extend four miles from the MGM Grand to the Sahara.

The downtown leg would be linked to the Strip's monorail system at Sahara Avenue. The cost of building the downtown leg could exceed $200 million, and the RTC is seeking federal funding.

Transit Systems Development, a private company whose partners are Cam Walker and Bob Broadbent, is negotiating to be the contractor for the downtown leg.

Broadbent is a former Clark County commissioner and was the county's director of aviation at McCarran International Airport. Broadbent and Walker were hired by the Strip properties to be the lead consultants in getting the Strip monorail under way.

City officials have embraced the downtown monorail as a way to make it easier for tourists to travel through the clogged streets of downtown, taking them over the blocks of office and industrial buildings and homes that separate downtown from the Stratosphere and the Strip.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has said a downtown monorail is crucial to the city's future, especially in revitalizing downtown, by bringing in new tourists who otherwise wouldn't make the trip from the Strip. Goodman lobbied Congress last month for federal money for transportation projects in the city, including the monorail.

Mark Paris, president of the Fremont Street Experience, said the gaming companies decided to get involved in the monorail because of the potential to bring in more tourists to the casinos and to help redevelop downtown.

Paris said the two Citizens Area Transit bus routes that travel downtown exceed their capacity. A monorail, with stops at the Fremont Street Experience and other downtown casinos, would be a magnet for tourists, he said.

"Our research shows that the biggest deterrent to people visiting the Fremont Street Experience is the availability of transportation and the cost," Paris said. "We think the monorail would serve as a catalyst for more people who are interested in coming downtown."