Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.
How do you operate a $650 million monorail system that doesn't work?
The answer is you don't, which is why Transit Management Systems, the high-powered company that runs the Las Vegas Monorail, has been forced to shut down service twice in the past week.
It turns out that the privately funded monorail, which has received millions of dollars in tax breaks from the state and county, is unsafe and never should have opened to all of its red carpet fanfare back in July. And it should remain closed until monorail officials can assure us that we aren't putting our lives in jeopardy every time we get near this high-tech contraption.
In hindsight we should have seen this coming when the monorail's much-hyped opening was delayed for six months because of a variety of software and technical problems. On one test drive in January, a drive shaft separated from a train and fell to the street 20 feet below.
Nine months later objects are still dropping from the sky, which seems fitting when you consider the company that built the monorail is called Bombardier Transportation.
Last week a 60-pound tire from a moving train fell into a parking lot near Koval Lane and Sands Avenue. On Wednesday, a two-pound steel washer used to help secure a drive shaft on another moving train broke loose and hit the ground along Audrie Street behind Paris Las Vegas.
In each case no one was hurt, but that may be just a stroke of luck. The monorail is built above well-traveled thoroughfares and pedestrian walkways, including those along South Paradise Road on the front doorstep of the busy Las Vegas Convention Center.
As they lay blame for their troubles on Bombardier, the closed-mouthed Canadian-based conglomerate, Transit Management officials are now admitting that they might have launched the trains prematurely in July.
Ya think?
"At the time we were given full confidence from the experts that the system was ready," monorail spokesman Todd Walker said. "But maybe it wasn't ready."
Ron Lynn, the county's building department chief, said he's so concerned about fallout from the monorail that he may order its operators to install a permanent shield or safety net under its four-mile concrete guideway to catch any future objects that might break off.
Another possibility, Lynn said, is requiring a steel cage underneath and alongside the trains.
Both ideas would be unprecedented in the annals of monorail history and not exactly a vote of confidence in the people associated with a project once billed as "the most technologically advanced public transportation system in the world."
But either option would be a good way to calm the public's fears.
The alternative is asking pedestrians and motorists to put on helmets every time they enter the danger zone, which isn't very tourist-friendly and is unlikely to provide much protection from a 60-pound falling object.
For the time being Bombardier, which has said very little publicly, is accepting responsibility for the mishaps and wants to make things right, according to Transit Management CEO Jim Gibson.
"We didn't bargain for anything other than a first-class system," Gibson said. "We are holding Bombardier accountable for whatever is required to make it a first-class system."
Translated, that means a system that is safe.
Until that happens, for as long as it takes, this $650 million embarrassment should remain idle.
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