Friday, Oct. 8, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.
If public transit in Las Vegas is an idea in its infancy, planners with the Regional Transportation Commission expect the next decade to resemble a sudden growth spurt.
Even with a proposed, publicly funded extension to the Las Vegas Monorail on hold while builders investigate what caused a prolonged shutdown of the trains, the RTC is standing by its ambitious plan to rely on the now-embattled system and a possible light rail line to bring the city's public transportation infrastructure up to speed with the area's rapid growth.
The RTC's vision hinges mainly on introducing Southern Nevada to what is known in urban planning circles as "regional fixed guideway service," a network RTC planners say could eventually link bus, light rail and possible monorail service.
The backbone of the plan is a little-used, 33-mile rail route last used by the Union Pacific that carves its way from Henderson, through the west side of the Strip, finally ending in North Las Vegas, Fred Ohene, assistant general manager of the RTC, said.
The existing tracks seem a natural fit for a possible light rail to connect the southern and northern ends of the growing valley, Ohene said, although the agency is also examining an extension of its successful MAX bus service along the corridor.
"We don't know what the technology will be at this point," he said. "It could be a light rail; it could be a form of rapid transit system."
Both bus and light rail service qualify as fixed guideway routes, according to the Federal Transit Administration, which has authority over public transit projects that use federal money.
Whatever form it takes, the transit system would run parallel to the Las Vegas Monorail, which now connects the MGM Grand to the Sahara hotel, with five stops in between.
The RTC had entertained a possible, publicly financed extension to the monorail that would connect the Strip to downtown Las Vegas, although two prolonged closures within the system's first two months of public operations have thrown the extension into question. The monorail now is not expected to open until at least next month, its officials say.
Planners had initially hoped to begin construction on the Strip-to-downtown phase within a year, a plan the RTC has said will be impossible to reach given the shutdown.
Although there are no immediate plans to abandon the extension, the RTC has temporarily shelved its plans while third-party consultants investigate what caused a 60-pound wheel assembly and an 2-pound industrial washer to fall from a moving monorail train within a week of each other, Ohene said.
"I think we're looking at keeping it a monorail extension, but everything is on hold at this point depending on what happens with Phase 1," he said. "Assuming that all goes well, I don't see a problem with us moving forward. But if they don't come through, our board will have to make a decision."
If the monorail extension does not move forward, transportation commissioners may have to weigh possible extension of existing bus service to shuttle people from the northernmost monorail platform to downtown or an extension of the MAX service along the resort corridor, Ohene said.
The RTC has not yet begun looking at these possibilities, he said.
"We're at a holding pattern," Ohene said. "We'd rather see what happens. I think it's too early to have a knee-jerk reaction."
Jim Gibson, the chairman and chief executive of Transit System Management, which oversees operations of the 4-mile, privately funded monorail, previously said discussions and agreements for the public expansion will begin once the monorail has been running 20 hours a day for six months, which will provide the RTC the ridership data they believe will justify an expansion.
Before the shutdown, the monorail was operating 16 hours a day and was bringing in about 30,000 riders a day. Monorail officials said the numbers -- about 55 percent of initial ridership goals -- would increase as the system became more popular.
Edward Neumann, a civil engineering professor at UNLV and an expert in public transportation projects, said the monorail's uncertain future will unlikely affect whether the RTC more aggressively pursues the possible light rail.
Ohene also said the monorail's difficulties have not hurt the long-term plans, which had counted on the two systems eventually running simultaneously.
Even though the two systems would run parallel to each other, they would be geared toward two different classes of rider. The light rail, which could stop several times on the west side of the Strip, would likely cater to casino employees and local residents traveling to the corridor. The monorail, by comparison, is geared primarily toward the 35 million visitors Las Vegas sees each year, he said.
"I don't see any competition (between the two systems) because of their alignments and the people they would serve would be so different," Neumann said.
The relative ease of parking in the casino corridor is another hurdle for Las Vegas, Neumann said, as commuters are more likely to turn to public transportation in areas where parking is scarce.
"If it's very easy to park, that can be an advantage (to driving) that can be difficult for transit to overcome," he said.
For the proposed light rail line to be successful, planners will have to carefully consider the placement and user-friendliness of stations along the route, Neumann said.
Publicly financed light rail systems have proven risky in other metropolitan areas. Northern California's Bay Area Rapit Transit system, by comparison, took decades to take shape and was repeatedly set back by labor strikes and state budget shortfalls. That system is a multi-county network of buses and rail systems.
The BART system, which officials began planning in the 1950s, opened to the public in 1972. If approved, planners have said the Las Vegas light rail could be completed by 2014.
The BART, at the time touted as the largest single public works project undertaken in the United States, was projected in 1962 to cost the counties footing the bill almost $1 billion. Early estimates pinpointed a possible Las Vegas light rail at $700 million -- about $20 million a mile -- but it could be as much as $2.1 billion if commissioners approve a costlier train.
If it is approved, early estimates have put the downtown monorail extension at roughly $350 million.
The Las Vegas light rail would likely be funded through a combination of federal funds and money earmarked from the $2.7 billion Question 10 transportation tax package, which could be used to bring in federal matching funds.
The rail and monorail systems would ultimately meet at a proposed transfer station downtown that would allow passengers to move from one system to the other, Ohene said.
Such a facility would help the two systems work together, giving monorail passengers the opportunity to continue north on the fixed guideway system, he said.
Todd Walker, a spokesman for the monorail, said system planners envisioned the monorail would eventually become part of the Las Vegas Valley's long-term transportation plans.
"We're starting to set the groundwork for what transportation will look like in the future," he said. "We're a four-mile portion of that much larger system."
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