Monorail may be running by New Year

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

The final battery of tests that will determine whether the Las Vegas Monorail will carry tourists in time for New Year's weekend were continuing this morning, a spokesman for the monorail company said.

The official "recommissioning," the open-ended period required by the Clark County Building Division, began quietly Tuesday morning after days of speculation that began last week, Todd Walker, a spokesman for the monorail, said.

Early estimates by county engineers pointed to the recommissioning, during which time the trains will have to log roughly 800 trouble-free miles each, beginning Tuesday.

Walker said the testing is expected to last between one and two weeks, meaning that if all goes well the $650 million system could begin carrying paying passengers again by Jan. 1.

"I think we'll have a better idea and will be able to get more exact as we see the results of these initial days (of testing)," he said.

Reopening in time for the New Year's Eve holiday weekend -- when the valley is expected to see more than 200,000 visitors -- would give the system a needed infusion of revenue.

The system has lost more than $8 million, roughly $85,000 a day, since it closed.

Testing will continue this morning as the monorail's board of directors meets at the Sawyer State Office Building to discuss the repairs and the closure's impact on the privately financed system.

Clark County Building Official Ron Lynn said preliminary tests over the weekend were mostly trouble-free, and seven of the automated trains were running without drivers, as they are supposed to.

Engineers had, however, responded to a number of "Category 2" alarms, meaning there were still glitches with the system's doors and lighting. Lynn and other engineers said the problems were minor and would not affect the trains' safety.

The monorail will be subject to monthly tests once it re-opens, compared with twice-yearly tests required of other people movers in Las Vegas. It must run trouble-free for three months before it can return to quarterly inspections, then twice a year, like the people mover running from the Excalibur resort to Mandalay Bay.

The system has been closed since a 6-inch-wide washer fell from a moving train Sept. 8, less than a day after it re-opened from a closure that began when a 60-pound wheel assembly fell onto a parking lot below.

Engineers said both problems stem from a series of harsh vibrations caused by a misaligned driveshaft. No one was injured in either incident.