No cause found for monorail glitch

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Technicians for the Las Vegas Monorail have not yet determined what caused two separate communication losses this week that brought the system to a halt for more than three hours apiece, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

The $650 million system was shut down for a little more than 20 minutes on Tuesday as engineers from Bombardier Inc., the Canadian firm that built and operates the trains, attempted to re-create the communication loss between the control center and the electric system's power supply, Todd Walker, a monorail company spokesman, said.

As is required, company officials contacted the Clark County Building Division, which was also on hand to inspect the system, he said.

A seemingly similar glitch occurred about 4 p.m. two days in a row and forced the evacuation of between 50 and 100 passengers on the train emblazoned with the "Only Vegas" logo. The company closed the system at roughly the same time Tuesday to find out if the malfunction may have been time-related, Walker said.

The system on Tuesday re-opened about 4 p.m. after technicians sped up the software's clock, he said. No similar malfunction was reported, meaning a definitive cause had not been pinned down Tuesday evening.

"It (the malfunction) didn't repeat itself," Walker said. "It's too early to tell if it's been remedied yet. ... We still need to see what changes need to be made."

Walker said technicians watching the train on monitors inside the control center never lost sight of the system, although automated communication to its power supply was lost.

The trains ran trouble-free on Tuesday, he said.