RTC panel begins review of fixed guideway plans

Stephen Curran

Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.

A specially formed Regional Transportation Commission steering committee on Thursday began reviewing the agency's plans for a proposed fixed guideway system that could link Henderson and North Las Vegas.

The committee, formed in September to study the possible 33-mile route, includes educators, business people and representatives from gaming companies and environmental advocacy groups.

Gary Johnson, an advertising executive for the embattled Las Vegas Monorail, chairs the committee.

The committee will study four technologies -- two forms of light rail and two diesel bus systems -- before making its recommendation to the RTC next summer. The group can also recommend the RTC take no action on the proposal.

Jacob Snow, general manager of the RTC, presented an overview at the two-hour meeting at the RTC offices.

Fixed guideway service includes both light rail and any kind of bus system that uses a dedicated travel lane, according to the RTC.

If approved by the RTC, the new system would run from the Nevada State College at Henderson to downtown Las Vegas and could be completed by 2008. A second phase, which officials have previously predicted could be finished by 2014, would extend the route from downtown to a planned UNLV satellite campus in North Las Vegas.

It would run on a little-used rail line now operated by the Union Pacific Railroad, which would sell the route to the RTC, Snow told the committee.

The system, which would include stops on the west side of the Strip, would help alleviate congestion along Interstate 15, which now carries more than 200,000 cars a day, Snow said.

Officials have estimated the cost of a new system at $700 million -- about $20 million a mile -- but it could be as much as $2.1 billion, depending on what type of system RTC members approve.