Another free day set for monorail

Stephen Curran

Monday, Dec. 27, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

After carrying passengers Friday for the first time since early September, the Las Vegas Monorail will continue allowing people to ride free through Tuesday.

The monorail reopened after getting the green light from the Clark County Building Division on Thursday. County officials on that day reviewed the final safety report regarding the monorail.

The report, prepared by engineers from Exponent, the third-party firm hired by the monorail company to study the two separate malfunctions that prompted the more than three-monthlong closure, was hand-delivered by an Exponent executive who flew in from San Francisco early Thursday afternoon, Todd Walker, a spokesman for the monorail company, said.

The document was the final hurdle for the beleaguered monorail, which on Wednesday passed the battery of preparedness tests. County engineers must review and agree with the report before they give the $650 million system the go-ahead to reopen.

The final battery of tests, which simulated a string of failures that ranged from fires to computer meltdowns to pieces falling from the elevated tracks, followed a longer process that required the trains to log more than 19,000 trouble-free miles combined before it would be allowed to reopen.

Exponent's report was to detail how a series of harsh vibrations loosened a 60-pound wheel assembly that fell Sept. 1 and the 6-inch-wide washer that fell from a moving train less than a week later.

The failure is believed to stem from a misaligned driveshaft, which caused the undercarriages to vibrate and loosen equipment underneath.

The first incident left the privately financed system shuttered for six days; the latter was responsible for the most recent closure.

The closure has cost the monorail company almost $9 million -- $85,000 a day -- in lost farebox revenue, officials have said.