Las Vegas monorail set to run on July 15

Beth Slovic and Stephen Curran

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

The chain-link fence and "no entry" signs surrounding one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in Clark County are about two weeks closer to being torn down, the head of the company tasked with building the much-anticipated Las Vegas monorail said Tuesday.

After repeated tests of the computer and mechanical equipment that powers the monorail system, engineers have finally given the system the go-ahead. More than six months past its first scheduled opening, the monorail will be ready to carry passengers on July 15, said Jim Gibson, chief executive of Transit System Management, the company that will run the $650 million system.

Tuesday's announcement is the first official target date monorail managers have set for the project since delays forced vague estimates of a "mid-summer" debut.

"We've had a string of days where we've had great success, to the point where we are confident that we can open July 15," said Gibson, who is also Henderson's mayor.

As late as mid-June Gibson and others involved with the project had said the exact date for the opening was uncertain.

The company is about three weeks into a mandatory 30-day testing period, during which time the monorail must run trouble-free. The goal had previously kept the system from opening, as once a problem arises engineers must restart the demonstration period, he said.

Gibson said he is certain the system's opening will not be further delayed.

The monorail has long been touted as a transportation alternative for convention-goers who travel on the busy Paradise Avenue corridor near the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Jacob Snow, chairman of the Regional Transportation Commission, said the agency expects about 7 percent fewer vehicle trips each day because of the monorail, enough to relieve much of the traffic caused within the busy tourist areas.

"It will not be a solution but it will be an overall panacea," he said. 'It will provide the movement solution people need."

Gibson estimates the monorail cars will eventually transport up to 20 million people a year.

And some of those millions will consider the monorail something they want to experience, apart from its ability to carry them from resort to resort, said Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

"It will be an attraction in and of itself," he said. "A lot of people will be using it just to say they rode it."

Brent Bell, president of Whittlesea Bell Transportation, a taxi company that employs about 900 drivers, said he hoped the monorail would relieve traffic in the valley.

"I'm not worried about the monorail taking away business," Bell said. "Our biggest problem is traffic. Taxi drivers would rather drop off customers and pick up another load than wait in traffic."

The minimum Las Vegas taxi fare is $3, the same as the price of a single one-way ticket on the monorail.

Carol Gold, a tourist from the Chicago area, said she looked forward to riding the monorail.

"It will be a lot nicer than the bus," Gold said as she waited to board a crowded bus heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Institute of Food Technologists, a Chicago-based nonprofit food science organization based in Chicago, may attract as many as 22,000 visitors when its annual convention hits the Las Vegas Convention Center on July 12-16.

The group's Web site already touts the monorail as an alternative to taxis.

Rosetta Newsome, a spokeswoman for the group, said those attending the food technologists' convention will be staying at four different hotels on the Strip. But almost all of the group's activities will take place at the Convention Center, where the monorail station is still bound by a chain-link fence marked by "no entry" signs and boxes overflowing with metal connectors and outlet parts.

The MGM Grand, another popular convention spot which anchors the monorail's southernmost station, is already expecting an influx of foot traffic through the 5,000-room hotel, said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman.

He said it was difficult to speculate how many additional visitors will walk through the hotel, which until January 2003 had a monorail connecting the MGM Grand to Bally's.

The closure had shifted foot traffic away from the once-popular Starlane Shops near the monorail entrance, which will hopefully be wooed back to that part of the hotel when the new monorail opens, he said.

"There will be some changes in foot traffic patterns in the property," Feldman said. "But I think it's good for everyone along the (monorail) route. There's not another city that I'm aware of that has the kind of people flow that we have and has a transportation system that's anything like this.

"We're excited for the entire city."