RTC goes to the MAX to handle passengers

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 8:36 a.m.

Clark County motorists will soon see a big, new vehicle on the region's crowded urban streets, the first of its kind in the nation.

The Regional Transportation Commission took delivery of the first of 10 European-built Civis buses Thursday, and the high-tech caterpillar-shaped vehicle could begin making test runs in its own lanes next week, RTC transit administrator June DeVoll said.

The buses are all slated to run as the Metropolitan Area Express, from downtown Las Vegas to Nellis Air Force Base. That route that is now served by some of the most crowded of the transit system's buses.

"Over the next four or five months, customers will see the buses out on the route," DeVoll said. The buses should start carrying paying riders in mid-January, she said.

Unlike the regular buses, the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, buses will use dedicated lanes and traffic systems that should keep the oversized super-bus out of the way of most drivers.

Computer modeling indicates that the MAX buses can provide a quicker, more convenient and far less polluting way to get around than traditional buses, DeVoll said. But models aren't necessarily reality.

"We will re-create all those tests here," she said. The RTC can reject the buses if any significant problems are discovered in the 30 days following delivery.

But the testing of the system will continue for months even after passengers start using the Civis buses because this is federal demonstration project, DeVoll said.

"We're going to take the first year to see how the vehicle actually works," she said.

DeVoll and other RTC officials say this is more than just a new, bigger bus. The MAX buses are more akin to an electric train than a bus, they say.

The Civis buses' diesel-electric engine produces practically no air pollution.

And instead of collecting fares the way the traditional buses do, MAX riders will buy a $1.25 fare from a vending machine; that fare will allow the rider onto a platform, or station, that will have seating and shelter. On board, riders will have their fares randomly checked to avoid freeloaders "hopping the turnstile."

The bus drivers, who still must be trained to use the advanced electronic guidance systems built into the vehicles, will be able to trigger traffic lights to keep it moving quickly along the route. And unlike regular CAT buses, which typically have stops every couple of blocks, the MAX buses will have centrally located stations to load and unload passengers -- a process that should be quick, since four doors on the sidewalk-side of the vehicle open simultaneously, and riders entering and exiting do not have to shuffle past the driver.

The buses cost $1 million each, double the typical price of a traditional bus, and the federal government is picking up 80 percent of the tab. The Federal Transit Administration is funding the new system as a demonstration project to see if it can work in demanding urban environments.

The federal transit agency also granted a needed waiver to the the RTC allowing the local agency to buy a foreign-built vehicle. The Civis Buses were delivered by Iris Bus U.S., a subsidiary of Italian corporate giant Fiat. While the controlling company is Italian, part of the vehicle assembly was done in France.

That ruffled feathers during the lead up to war with Iraq last year because France opposed the U.S. invasion of the Middle East country. DeVoll, clearly aware that some people are uncomfortable with a European-built vehicle, listed the components produced the United States.

They include, according to the RTC: the seats, the flexible articulated joints in the middle of the bus, windows, the destination signs, the on-board video monitors, and "a lot of other American components."

Members of the maintenance team, however, are imported.

Alberto Gonzalez, a two-year Iris Bus employee, came with the package from Madrid, Spain. As part of the RTC's contract with the company, he will spend 30 months here making sure the buses continue rolling.

"The technology is very advanced," Gonzalez said. "It is the latest."

He compared it to the city that will be home to the new buses, noting that Las Vegas seems to welcome new technology in its entertainment.

"Las Vegas is the right place for this vehicle," Gonzalez said.

The downtown-to-Nellis route is the first route that the vehicle will travel, but probably not the last one. DeVoll said the RTC is considering other routes that would benefit from the MAX-style buses. Among them, a corridor along Boulder Highway and a route along Flamingo Road or Sahara Avenue.