Hotels express frustration with monorail’s shutdown

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

Resorts along the Las Vegas Monorail route are frustrated and restless about the dormant high-tech train but cautious about being too critical of its failures, since all agree that safety is the most important element of its operation.

Monorail officials aren't saying when they expect the four-mile elevated train system east of the Strip to be operational since its Sept. 8 shutdown, but most are banking on its opening ahead of the New Year's holiday and the arrival of more than 125,000 Consumer Electronics Show delegates next month.

"Naturally, we're kind of concerned since we put so much money into it and haven't realized the return on investment we had planned," said Ed Crispell, general manager of the Imperial Palace, which has a station in the heart of the monorail line.

Las Vegas Monorail Co. officials say during the system's 48 days of operation in 2004 it had average daily ridership of 28,400 passengers, paying an average $2.80 a ride. Monorail officials say they project ridership of 29,000 a day in January, growing to 42,500 a day by the end of 2005.

Crispell did not disclose specific Imperial Palace figures but said the company has "spent millions" to redesign the interior of the property with a walkway to the monorail station.

He added that all of the resort's collateral materials have references to the monorail that have led to confusion since the transportation system has been down.

"We just tell people that it's closed for safety issues and that we don't know when it's going to reopen," Crispell said when asked what employees tell inquiring guests.

Marilyn Winn, senior vice president and general manager of Harrah's, said the monorail's shutdown hasn't hurt business -- but it hasn't helped it either.

The refurbishment of a promenade leading from the train stop at the rear of the property to the front was part of a series of recent improvements at Harrah's and a Starbucks coffee shop on that walkway that had been open most of the day when the monorail was open had to curtail hours because of reduced traffic.

She said the shutdown has created confusion and disappointment among customers.

"People want to know when it's going to come back," Winn said. "The more confusion you create in the customer's mind, the more clarity you have to provide in the future."

A fully functioning monorail will be critical to Harrah's next June, Winn said. That's when the Toby Keith-themed restaurant and bar along the monorail promenade is scheduled to open.

Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Mirage, whose MGM Grand property is at the south terminus of the monorail route, said resort officials have been frustrated with the system's closure.

"We're not quite ready to start a fight over this," Feldman said. "We just want to see the system running again, safely. This isn't the time to be pointing fingers."

The MGM Grand has been one of the properties that has had the most to gain, since it has marketed the resort's restaurant row to monorail customers and guests of the world's largest hotel are enthused about the prospect of taking a five-minute ride on the monorail to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Another property on the route that stands to gain from the monorail is the Las Vegas Hilton, which in essence has gained a Strip doorstep with the system's presence. Resort spokesman Ira David Sternberg said the Hilton's optimism hasn't waned during the monorail's three-month hiatus.

"We've always been optimistic about the monorail," Sternberg said. "Clearly, there were technical issues that had to be resolved. But since its inception, we knew the system would be good for the Las Vegas Hilton."

Sternberg said it's impossible to gauge the financial impact of the monorail's shutdown on the property.

"There's no way to look at it that way, no way to estimate visitor volume or dollar amounts lost," he said. "The monorail people kept us posed on when things would change. You plan for the best, but if there's a hiccup, you have a backup plan."

Las Vegas Monorail spokesman Todd Walker said Clark County Building Division would make the final call on when the system would be reopened. County officials say the system must undergo 4,000 miles of normal operations and inspectors must check troublesome drive shaft alignment modifications before the system could re-enter revenue service.

Walker said the monorail company has not pre-sold tickets to convention groups and companies that have station sponsorships and train-wrap advertising -- Nextel, Paramount Parks and Monster Beverage Co. -- aren't having to pay for it for the time the trains have been down.

While conventioneers attending the Men's Apparel Guild in California show in August and September were delighted with the monorail service and monorail marketers considered contacting representatives of big conventions to boost ridership, Walker said no tickets were pre-sold to CES.

Officials with the company selling advertising and sponsorships have said stations go for about $2 million a year and train wraps are $1 million a year.

In fact, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is anxious to have another train wrapped with a Las Vegas Centennial message.

"We've received no negative feedback about the system being down," said Rossi Ralenkotter, president and chief executive officer of the LVCVA. "I don't think there was an expectation level built and it's an excellent transportation vehicle."

The LVCVA has a deal with the Las Vegas Monorail Co. that allows it to wrap trains with its own designs as long as there are no paying sponsors wanting wraps. The public-private marketing operation has a wrapped train and wants to launch a Las Vegas Centennial design next.

The LVCVA pays about $85,000 to wrap a train.