Nevada expects $1 billion in transit funding

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002 | 11:44 a.m.

Southern Nevada, thanks in large part to Sen. Harry Reid, could receive more than $1 billion in funding for new transportation projects over the next year.

It is a milestone that the Regional Transportation Commission, the agency charged with overseeing local transit planning, will mark Thursday with a "thank you" event. Business and political leaders will gather at a stop on what will be the region's newest mass-transit showcase -- a 7-mile monorail that will connect the Strip to downtown Las Vegas.

The monorail, now under construction, is scheduled to include a four-mile stretch operating by January 2004. The RTC event will be held at the Sahara Hotel's stop on the line.

Reid drafted laws that allow the Federal Transit Administration to match the private investment in the monorail dollar for dollar -- potentially providing at least $650 million, the amount already gathered for the project.

The federal money is critical for the project to extend another 3.5 miles into the heart of downtown, RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said.

The monorail is only one of more than a dozen local transportation projects that Reid championed and now will benefit from federal funding.

A proposal to extend Amtrak's rail service between Las Vegas and Los Angeles is now under environmental review in Washington. The cost for track improvements has been estimated at about $25 million.

RTC staffers and Reid's staff say the senator helped motivate the Federal Transportation Administration to fast-track resumption of service between the cities. The train should start making the five-hour trip by the end of the year, they say.

The RTC's Snow bristles when people charge that bringing rail service to Las Vegas benefits the region unfairly.

Everyone who drives pays a 3 cent-per-gallon rail transit tax on gasoline, Snow said. Until now, Southern Nevada hasn't gotten a share of that money. Instead, the region has subsidized projects in other parts of the country.

"Senator Reid is the great equalizer as far as I am concerned," Snow said.

Rail advocates locally say any way to bring people here -- especially after attacks made people wary of air travel -- is important.

The Amtrak line is just one of the travel options that will benefit Southern Nevada, said Michael Lasko, a transportation planner with CH2M Hill, a consulting firm with offices in Las Vegas and nationwide.

"It is a waste of money," said Illinois-based transportation consultant Wendell Cox, who represented the local taxi industry in opposing the monorail project.

Cox said the 50,000-plus passengers that the RTC estimates will use the monorail daily is a wildly inflated number. The project may benefit the hotels that have stations on the line, but won't do anything to help air quality or locals who need to get to or from their jobs on the Strip, he said.

"The monorail will probably fail within three years of opening," Cox predicted.

Cox is noted nationally for his opposition to most forms of rail service. Cox's ire is also directed toward the resumption of Amtrak service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Cox was appointed by Republican and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to the the Amtrak Reform Council, a federal commission that supports splitting up the subsidized rail system. He said putting more Amtrak trains into service amounts to a pet project that would not reduce the number of cars from Southern Nevada that regularly clog Interstate 15.

"If you're interested in moving people, it isn't going to have the slightest impact," he said. "If it's self-sustaining, there's no harm done. But I suspect it will be heavily subsidized."

Lasko, who has done contract work for the RTC, said Reid's efforts across the board for mass transit will enhance the quality of visits by tourists and quality of life for residents.

"Consider the modes of traffic transportation in Europe," Lasko said. "They have freeways and highways. They have the subways. They have the high-speed rails.

"The Southwest could be in a similar position in the very near future," he said. "Kudos to Senator Reid and those who are working with to have that vision to improve the quality of life."

Bob Herbert, Reid's point man for transportation issues, said his boss has focused on transportation alternatives to the car because of the importance of the issue to the Las Vegas area.

The area is under federal mandate to clean up the air, an effort that must target cars in general and traffic congestion particularly.

The traffic jams, which have worsened since many Southern Californian visitors took to their cars since the September attacks, also threaten the lifestyles of residents and the tourist industry, Herbert said.

"Pork is in the eye of the beholder," Herbert said -- but nationally, the skies would be clearer and there would be less traffic on the road if more elected officials followed Reid's lead, he added.

Nathan Naylor, a Reid spokesman, said the transportation alternatives the senator is boosting will have other implications outside the region.

"A lot of people come to Las Vegas," he said. "If Las Vegas has mass transportation that works and works well, we have the ability to influence millions of Americans.