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By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Friday, March 26, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
RTC: New Bus is an ACE
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Sleek new ACE buses will take passengers down two new routes starting on Sunday, March 28. Until April 3, locals ride for free on the new ACE Gold Line and ACExpress rapid transit service from Centennial Hills to downtown, UNLV and the south Strip.
Sun archives
- RTC approves contracts for two more ACE rapid bus lines (3-11-2010)
- Construction to begin in fall on Ace bus route (5-6-2009)
- Train-like bus line on track for winter opening (3-25-2009)
Beyond the Sun
Jacob Snow
The Regional Transportation Commission is spending $164.6 million of public money on the new ACE buses and their special bus stops in part because too many Las Vegans consider themselves too good to ride a bus.
Surveys and focus groups confirmed the prejudice against riding a bus, the stereotyping that buses are only for the down and out. But the same studies also convinced the RTC that many more people would be willing to ride these buses, RTC General Manager Jacob Snow says.
“We got the middle class, and they told us, ‘We’ll take transit. We don’t care if it’s a bus. We don’t care if it’s a train. But it needs to get me where I want to go, it needs to get me there fast. And I need to feel like I’m not receiving welfare from the state to take transit,’ ” Snow says.
ACE — “the way it looks, the way it runs and the way it’s marketed” — is intended to entice people who “won’t view it as taking the bus,” says Tom Piechota, UNLV’s director of sustainability and an RTC Stakeholder Advisory Committee member.
ACE, which launches Sunday, uses lavish 62-feet-long hybrid buses designed, inside and out, to look like a train car, with 44 seats, hand rails to accommodate 65 more people, interior bike racks and a cabin that separates the driver from passengers. Like many light-rail trains, the buses will stop at designated stations with raised platforms, removing the need to climb steps as passengers enter the bus through any of its three wide doors.
And it will mainly use bus-only and high-occupancy vehicle lanes to provide faster service.
Bus rapid transit systems have become popular in the United States because they offer the speed and comfort of a light-rail train without the high cost and inflexibility of a system that runs on tracks.
Although far cheaper than light rail, ACE still represents a sizable investment. Each of the long, sleek gasoline-electricity vehicles costs $1 million, and the RTC has purchased 50. Plus, it has spent $28 million to build a park-and-ride facility and a downtown transfer station, and more than $50 million to build dedicated bus lanes and stations in downtown Las Vegas.
And that’s just for the first two lines.
Three more are in the works, and by 2015, the RTC hopes to have ACE lines crisscrossing the valley.
The vehicles and their stations cost a lot more than a traditional bus line’s, but ACE buses should last eight years longer than a traditional bus, and the dedicated lanes provide faster service and require fewer vehicles, the RTC says.
Plus the system will make buses more convenient for people as the time to destinations is less because of HOV lanes on the freeway and dedicated lanes on surface streets, Piechota says.
“The time for you to get to work, depending on where you’re going, is at least comparable to driving and in some cases may even be faster than driving,” he says.
Snow is confident ACE will draw new riders because of the success the RTC has seen with the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, line, which has been running on Las Vegas Boulevard North since 2004. When that line began using the larger buses on dedicated lanes, ridership increased 40 percent, Snow notes.
“We had a number of people who left their automobiles to come try the MAX, and we noticed that we could provide that type of service at a lower cost than our other traditional bus service,” Snow says. “Our operating costs go down and the speed of getting to someone’s destination goes up. It’s a great combination.”
Bus driver Marvin Wilkins has been taking ACE buses on test drives to get ready for opening day and says the reaction has been exactly what the RTC hoped for.
“People see it and say, ‘Oh, man, what a great bus. What a beautiful bus. When can we ride it? When can we ride it? When does it start?’ Everybody wants to ride it.”
For me its not that it looks cheap. No matter how they package the bus it still is a bus. For $2.00 you can go across town. But its not all that for me I live off Fort Apache between Russell and Hacienda. I could ride the bus; however, its the fact that it would take me 2 or more hours just to get to were I need to go. And 2 or more hours to get back. Plus have you ever tried shopping on a bus. The closest bus stop to my apt is either 1000 feet to the north or its 1000 ft to the south. Try walking that on the side of the road with no sidewalk, with an extra 50 to 75 lbs of groceries on your shoulder. Plus one place I go I would have to take 3 buses to get there and still would have to walk about a mile on the trip between bus stops. And if I missed one bus I would be an hour late, waiting for the next bus. In order for me to get there by 7 am by bus I would have to leave my house at 3 am. For me its not worth the hassle. till the RTC can get that solved I will continue to drive.
Can't get any money on high speed rail building, but $164,500,000 on some new buses. How many jobs will this create? Currently the RTC has 0 job openings. Will anyone travel to Vegas to see the new buses? No. Will the fairs on these new buses go up to $3? Some think so. Is $1,000,000 a bit pricey for a city bus?
I used to try and take the CAT bus from Henderson to the airport, to save on parking fees for a long trip. But they rerouted all the buses, and now I am screwed.
But what I noticed on the bus rides was all the creepy people who rode the buses. Between the illegals and the meth heads, you avoided any eye contact. Riding late at night was even worse. Never again.
I guess we need the bus system to transport illegals making up beds and going to Home Depot to look for jobs. But it's too nasty for me.
I think this is a matter of what you're used to--I'm from Chicago, where I didn't own a car and took buses or the El everywhere with all sorts of people. I knew which lines to avoid at night, but the more transient crowd never bothered me during the day.
I live in Centennial Hills and work in Hughes Center--I can't wait to start riding this bus to work next week! I can finally sit back and catch up on some reading during my commute again!
JayeTT: I agree. I lived in Philadelphia for several years and took public transportation everywhere. But that city and Chicago have had a long time to evolve their public transportation, so most people who grew up in those areas already knew what to expect and how to function with it. One of the problems I see locally is that the Vegas city planners have had no real sense of how to plan for a city.
Teaser, agree with your comments. I think it takes some getting used to--where I come from there isn't really a stigma about taking the bus.
And yes, our transit systems were planned into our hometowns, and it's sort of an afterthought here, so it's definitely now a challenge to make it workable.
I'm fortunate that this new ACE line will work for me, but there are still a lot of areas of Las Vegas that it does take hours to get from A to B by bus (if it's even possible). It's going to be a slow road, but I do think this is a step in the right direction, and I'm excited to support it.
I enjoy my senior pass and buck rides. That way my wife and I only need one car. Cars -now there is an interesting invention - pollutes during its production -then burns petroleum which because of the balance of payments problems will destroy our economy long before the politicians - and think of the thousands killed every year and the expensive roads. Ok, I love driving but also enjoy trains and buses - airplanes should all be flown off the end of the flat earth.
Hey, have a great weekend!
I would simply love to ride the bus, accept it takes 2 or more hours to get anywhere and it only takes 20 mins or less to get to a lot of areas by car. the buses on my side of town break down constantly the cost per day is insane even more so if you work on the strip I mean 7 dollars a day and if you buy by the month it is 65 dollars, there are no discounts if your a college student or low income, it cost me about the same a month to use my car. if you want people to use it then lower the prices, you might take lose a little up front but it will encourage more passengers as well as making it reliable so it is reasonable to use for work, it will recoup the cost by increasing usage.
The bus on Nellis is very often late. I have seen it break down. Can't rely on it to make it to work on time. So, I don't take it. Last week my car was in the shop. I rented a car. Don't need to be fired for a late bus.
It costs less than $65 a month to insure, fuel and maintain your car?
Waste O'money.....