Public-private transportation endorsed at Vegas convention

Alana Roberts

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

It's been called sexy, it's been called sleek. And now a local transportation expert is calling the Robert N. Broadbent-Las Vegas Monorail a smart form of transportation.

Joint public/private transportation projects, such as the Monorail, are the way to ensure public and private transportation systems remain viable, said Curtis Myles III, deputy general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.

"It's going to be the foundation of how transit moves forward," he said during a panel discussion Monday at BusCon The Medium & Light-Duty Bus Show, a national bus industry convention in Las Vegas.

The panel was comprised of Myles, Cliff Henke, manager of external affairs at North American Bus Industries Inc., Godfrey LeBron, vice president and general manager of Paradise Trailways and Peter Pantuso, president and chief executive officer of the American Bus Association.

So far, the $650 million price tag for phase one of the Monorail has been entirely funded by private sources. Phase one will operate four miles between the MGM Grand hotel-casino and the Sahara hotel-casino and will begin operation early next year.

Construction for phase two of the project, which will connect Sahara Avenue to Fremont Street, is set to begin in 2005 and to be fully operational in 2007. Phase two is being built under a joint public-private partnership between the Las Vegas Monorail Co. and the Regional Transportation Commission at a cost of $454 million.

Regional Transportation Commission officials hope that Congress will pay $158 million of the phase two costs.

"(It's about) breaking the paradigms about what private entities do," Myles said after the conference. "Demand is certainly going to outstrip supply. We've got to come up with creative ways that will provide supply. There's a limit to how much you can do. Let us develop innovative, intermodal ways to get people from high-density residential areas to their places of work."

While Myles emphasized the need for private and public entities to work together to provide a seamless intermodal transportation system, other panelists said improved customer service is another sure-fire way to keep people interested in bus transportation.

The panelists discussed how the Sept. 11 attacks, changed travel patterns, and changed demographics -- along with a repressed economy -- have affected public transportation. They also discussed ways to more effectively serve customers' individual travel needs.

"I don't think public transportation is different after Sept. 11," said Henke, of North American Bus Industries.

"What's different in public transportation has been the recession. We've seen a downturn. Those budget deficits have had an impact on public transportation."

Meanwhile, LeBron said security concerns created by the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq have affected Paradise Trailways, a private charter bus company.

"People gravitate more toward their cars," LeBron said. "This is a pattern we saw before Sept. 11. Throw a recession on top of that."

"Some of the challenges in the industry have (already) existed," added Pantuso of the American Bus Association.

"We've seen population shifts, ethnic changes, age changes. There have been success stories. It's an industry that goes through peaks and valleys and Sept. 11 is one of those changes."

He said 40 percent of bus riders are under 25, while another 40 percent are senior citizens so the need to reach people between the ages of 25 and 65 is strong. He said a way to reach those potential customers is through innovation.

"You've got a 40-year age gap. You've got to figure a way to break up the travel experience like the cruise industry. They want an individual travel experience."

Meanwhile, Godfrey emphasized the importance of good customer service and a need to change people's perception of buses.

"My drivers realize if we don't treat them right they don't have to come back. We now more than ever have to have everyone be a salesman for the industry," he said.