RTC seeks federal grant to deter terrorism

Friday, April 9, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission is seeking $1.1 million in federal money to protect the Las Vegas Valley's public transportation system against terrorism.

The RTC board on Thursday approved an application for a $1.1 million federal grant to help pay for $1.3 million in anti-terrorism and safety projects.

It is among $50 million in federal money the local agency will seek to help with $62 million in projects, which would also include new or replacement public buses, expansion and new transportation projects and maintenance and bus rider amenities.

One of the anti-terrorism measures is the installation of concrete barriers and "blast-mitigation" film on the north and south windows of the South Strip Transfer Terminal, at Sunset Road and Gilespie Drive.

"Currently there are no barriers in place to prevent a vehicle from driving into the terminal's north, south or east entrances ... or provide an acceptable setback distance (50 feet) for vehicles left unattended in the loading dock area," RTC staff wrote to the commissioners

"This ... exposes building occupants to being injured by shards of glass from acts of direct terrorism or collateral damage caused by an explosion."

Also at that location, loading dock entrance improvements are proposed for safety of pedestrians and to prevent accidents between buses and delivery and garbage trucks.

Other proposed anti-terrorism and safety measures include:

The grant also calls for new and replacement buses to overall increase the Citizens Area Transit operating fleet by 52 buses to 403.

Since its inception in 1992, the CAT system has grown from 22 routes to 42. Annual ridership has increased from 16 million passengers to more than 50 million, RTC staff said. Additional vehicles will add more service hours, alleviate overcrowding, improve on-time performance on existing routes, allow more frequent service and create new routes, they said.

The RTC plans to spend $38 million total on new vehicles: 79 paratransit vehicles, 43 low-floor buses, five double-deck buses and four traditional buses.

The money would also help pay for stations for the Las Vegas monorail downtown extension, system plans and preliminary engineering for the proposed Catrail route and land acquisition for the Central City Intermodal Transportation Terminal near downtown Las Vegas.

Also proposed for grant money is the planned Catrail system that would use existing railroad or other public rights of way from southern Henderson to a corridor parallel to the Strip and Interstate 15 and continue north to downtown Las Vegas.

This money would be used to examine the feasibility of local passenger rail service.

Additional bus-rider amenities paid for by the grant would include installation of a device to provide route schedule and fare information on the Internet, installation of a system for dispatchers to provide riders with real time and arrival/departure time for buses, construction of bus shelters at Pecos and Flamingo roads and at Eastern Avenue and Flamingo and installation of signs for visually impaired bus users.