Reid calls monorail future of transportation

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid received a birthday present Monday from regional transportation officials: A look at the monorail under construction along the Strip, a system that Reid is working to expand with federal dollars.

The visit to the monorail construction site was the first in about six months for Reid, who has been a stalwart backer of federal funding for mass transit programs in Southern Nevada.

The monorail route under construction runs south from Sahara Avenue and will connect with the 1.5-mile monorail line linking Bally's and the MGM Grand. Reid, Democratic Senate whip, is negotiating with the Bush administration in an effort to bring home $150 million more to extend the line north from Sahara to downtown.

The funding, if it comes, would provide much of the $350 million needed to bring the monorail downtown, transportation officials said. The rest would come from a government loan and sales of bonds, Regional Transportation Commission General Manager Jacob Snow said.

The $650 million privately funded line already under construction is scheduled to carry passengers in early 2004. The officials told Reid that test runs of the monorail could begin early next year.

"There will be a lot of tourists wondering why there are empty trains going back and forth for six miles" next year, said Tom Butterfield, monorail installation supervisor for Bombardier Transportation, the major contractor for the construction.

Reid, who turned 63 Monday, said the monorail and similar programs such as a proposed light-rail commuter train from Henderson to the south end of the Strip represent the future of transportation in the area.

"It used to be the belief that we could solve all our transportation problems by building more roads," he said. "That cannot be done.

"It is so good that we're doing other things. If we're really going to help people ... we've got to do other things."

He gestured at the dusty interior of the new control and power center at Sahara and Paradise Road.

"This is the state of the art in mass transportation today, right here all around us," Reid said.

Progress on the grand vision of a monorail extends beyond the workers busy bringing together the steel and concrete. The RTC's Snow said he expects the federal government to open up for public comment this month a draft environmental impact statement on the monorail extension to downtown.

And in April, the RTC will have a public hearing to review a proposed monorail spur that would tie the system to the Riviera and Stardust hotels.

Snow said the project has allies both on Capitol Hill and in the White House. He said the RTC is optimistic that it can get federal funding for more monorail construction.

"The (Bush) administration really likes this project because of its public-private nature," he said. "We're hearing all the right things from the Federal Transit Administration."

With funding and approval of the environmental impact statement, construction on the link to downtown could begin in 2004.