New chief looking for new direction for LV Monorail

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

The best way for new Las Vegas Monorail Chief Executive Curtis Myles to gauge the success of the $650 million system might be to look out the second-floor window of a company meeting room.

That's where, if all is going smoothly, the brightly covered trains glide on rubber tires along the elevated track every 14 minutes. But it's the distant shadows seen through their tinted windows that concern him.

The amount of shadows cast by passengers will tell the future of Southern Nevada's latest experiment in mass transit.

"That's the best way to tell," Myles said, turning around in a black leather chair at the head of the table.

In an interview with the Sun on Tuesday, his eighth day leading the monorail, Myles said he has to tell what makes for a typical day in the job that combines responsibilities held by outgoing monorail chief executive Jim Gibson and Transit Systems Management boss Cam Walker.

Gibson, who is expected to announce next month whether he will run for governor in 2006, will step into a consulting role and is expected to part with the company later this year. Transit Systems Management, a for-profit entity created to oversee construction of the privately financed system, was dissolved earlier this month.

The affable Myles is a dramatic visible change from Gibson, whose quiet reserve is often used to define Henderson's mayor.

It's an energy Myles said has been recharged in the days since he stepped down as deputy general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission to head up the monorail.

"This job has re-energized me," he said.

While Myles stopped short of directly criticizing his predecessors, he said he might have reconsidered how the 4-mile track from the MGM Grand to the Sahara hotel took shape.

Much of the change in how Myles said he would have tackled the project comes from an essential difference in private versus public projects, including how launch dates are set. The more than three months of near-continual glitches that led to negative media coverage for the system could have been avoided if its July 15, 2004, launch had not been set so far in advance, he said.

Instead, those delays stalled a "start-up" phase meant to iron out inconsistencies in the automated system and delayed the re-opening to December. The closure cost the system more than $9 million in lost farebox revenues.

They're the kinds of glitches Myles and monorail officials before him have said are common for public transit projects that rely on taxpayer money. The monorail, by comparison, owes its existence to private investors and covers all of its operating and maintenance costs, he said.

"There's a lot of misunderstanding about the monorail and what it does," Myles said.

Now, with what company spokesman Todd Walker said is a 98 percent reliability rate since December, Myles said his new focus is to build ridership that is "trending upward" toward initial estimates that indicated roughly 36,000 people would board the system every day.

At the top of his list is a much-discussed extension to McCarran International Airport, a route Myles said he would have made a priority in the system's early stages.

"I'm not saying they didn't," he said of early planners. "But you don't have to be a transit expert to see that. ... But there are a lot of hurdles in place."

The extension may come as Myles' former employer works to develop a proposed fixed guideway system that could eventually run from Henderson to North Las Vegas, including a stretch on the west side of the Strip.

Pointing to a mural-sized map with a thick white line detailing the existing monorail route and running his finger along where a possible light rail system could go, Myles said the two systems would not be in direct competition but would provide much-needed relief along Interstate 15, where studies on a proposed expansion are expected to be under way.

"The RTC and the monorail company need to work together," he said.

The county agency had planned a publicly financed expansion to the monorail that would lead to downtown Las Vegas.

However , the federal Transportation Department cited lower-than-expected ridership brought on by the the prolonged closure when it opted in January not to put forward more than $320 million toward the project.

The denial of federal money stalled the RTC's involvement in the project until at least 2007, when the project could again receive federal funds.

At roughly 30,000 riders a day, Myles said, those early estimates are still realistic even if a publicly financed fixed guideway system comes to fruition. The system's long-term reliability will be the ultimate factor that determines whether it meets that goal, he added.

"It's like a child," he said. "First you're on your knees, then you walk, then you run and then you sprint. Right now the system is walking."