Saturday, July 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Monorail's first day smooth as 30,515 use new system

People wait to board the Las Vegas Monorail on Thursday as two trains pass each other at the Sahara Avenue station during the system's first day of operations. The monorail carried more than 30,000 passengers that day. Photo by Samantha Clemens. People board the monorail at the Sahara station Thursday. Photo by Samantha Clemens.

The Las Vegas Monorail drew 30,515 passengers on its first day of service Thursday, according to company officials, who declined to say whether the number met projections.

"We're thrilled with the response we received our first day of carrying passengers," Jim Gibson, chairman and CEO of monorail operations company Transit Systems Management, said in a prepared statement Friday.

"Considering the magnitude of the project, everything went very smoothly. The comments we're hearing from the public have been overwhelmingly positive," Gibson's statement said. "We're grateful that Las Vegas visitors and locals alike seem to be enjoying the monorail."

After inaugural celebrations Wednesday, the $650 million, privately financed system on Thursday began whisking paying passengers on a 4.4-mile track between Sahara and Tropicana avenues behind the east side of the Strip.

Prior to opening day, monorail officials said they did not expect ridership in the near-term to hit the anticipated daily average of 50,000 riders. That number has been assailed by monorail opponents, who claim the typical turnout will be less than half that.

About 40,000 daily riders are needed for the system to break even financially.

Early opening day, stations and trains were busy but not jam-packed. Officials said there were standing room-only crowds aboard trains by midday.

Each train is designed to carry up to 125 standees in addition to 75 seated riders. As many as seven of the system's nine trains were operating at any one time Thursday, officials said.

The crowds did not come close to taxing the system's ridership capacity of 6,000 riders per hour. Under current operating hours of 8 a.m. to midnight, capacity is 96,000 riders per day.

One sign that the opening day crowd surpassed expectations was the amount of money collected. Officials said they had to make an unscheduled cash collection from automated ticket kiosks, some of which became stuffed with bills.

Those kiosks are scheduled to be emptied of cash once every few days, according to officials.

"On a first day, everybody has to purchase a ticket. Someone buying a three-day pass won't be going back to a ticket machine," monorail spokesman Todd Walker said.

The system collected $98,436.50 in first-day fares from riders, according to officials.

Walker reported no problems with the the monorail line's driverless, computerized control system, which had suffered glitches during testing earlier this year that contributed to repeated delays in the start date.

Officials spent Thursday monitoring passengers buying tickets, getting on trains and being carried to their stops.

For the most part, they saw no problems. "We've seen some slight changes we can make to make it even more user-friendly," Walker said.

Targets for change could include the ticket kiosks, which some commuters were unsure how to use. "They're user-friendly, but we can make it easier to understand," Walker said.

Other changes will depend on how and when riders use the monorail in the coming months. "You have to get through a week and through a convention and through the seasons to see what you need to adjust," Walker said.

The system's first major test might be this weekend, when Strip tourist volumes typically peak for the week. Officials declined to speculate if larger crowds were expected today.

"We're going to be there and we'll see," Walker said. "I don't expect more or less (people). I expect a lot of people."