Monorail strands passengers; firm says some glitches normal

Stephen Curran

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

The $650 million Las Vegas Monorail suffered its first setback Thursday night after its northbound car broke down, leaving would-be passengers at the Sahara station looking for another mode of transportation.

Operators noticed a problem with the car about 8 p.m. Thursday as the car approached the station opposite the Sahara hotel, where it stopped before being taken to a service bay to be inspected, Todd Walker, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Monorail Co., said.

Northbound service was suspended for several minutes as technicians worked to put another train into service. No further problems were found when technicians inspected the train overnight, and it was put back into service this morning, Walker said.

Standards set for the system require that a "hot spare" be available in case of such a breakdown to reduce the inconvenience to riders, Walker said. Normally passengers can board the spare train within several minutes.

Thursday's breakdown was not the first glitch in the service, as riders Wednesday night, passengers were reportedly left stranded at the MGM Grand station for about 10 minutes after automated doors would not open. Walker blamed the problems on growing pains and said the snarls were expected in the first couple of months of public operation.

"Those are the things that begin to come up when you open the system," he said. "The system is completely in its infancy and it must walk before it runs."

Each car is equipped with an emergency phone connected directly to the system's control room, a 50,000-square-foot warehouse containing the monorail's four service bays and security operations.

The monorail system, which travels a 4-mile route from the MGM Grand to the Sahara hotel, opened July 15 after more than six months of delays stemming from a series of mechanical and computer glitches. Standards set by Transit System Managment, the for-profit company created to administer contracts related to the project, required the trains to run trouble-free for 30 days before engineers could deem them fully operational.

Initial projections placed ridership at up to 20 million passengers a year.

Jim Gibson, the chief executive officer of Transit System Management and mayor of Henderson, was unavailable for comment this morning.

Bombardier Transportation, the Canadian company that built the trains, repeatedly slams and tests the doors for durability before they are certified to run, Walker said. During the tests, each door is opened and closed up to a million times.

The company and construction partner Granite Construction in May were found liable for fines of $85,000 a day for delays stemming from the project. By early July the companies had amassed more than $12 million in fines, according to the company.