Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

$654 MILLION PROJECT: Monorail ready to go public

After several missed target dates, officials say mass transit system will open July 15

Las Vegas Monorail cars leave the Sahara Avenue station Tuesday during a test run of the $654 million, 4.4-mile rapid transit system. The monorail opens to the public July 15. Photo by John Gurzinski.

If you were wondering whether the Las Vegas Monorail would ever open to the public, you now have a firm date: July 15.

At 8 a.m. that Thursday, the $654 million rapid transit system is scheduled to begin hauling paying passengers behind the Strip. Monorail officials vow the date will be the last of a string of on-again, off-again target openings.

"We're very pleased and looking forward to opening. We're excited," Cam Walker, president of the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail Co., said Tuesday. "We have successfully completed those things necessary to allow us the confidence to open the system."

Originally, it was thought the system could open as early as late January. March 1 eventually was set as a target launch date before slipping to later in March, then sometime this summer as testing progressed slowly.

Most of the problems have involved computer software that controls the driverless trains along the 4.4-mile route between Sahara and Tropicana avenues, just east of Las Vegas Boulevard South.

The highest-profile problem to date was a Jan. 5 accident in which a drive shaft fell from one of the monorail cars. No one was hurt, but the accident shut down testing for three days.

Monorail officials had been aiming for 30 consecutive days of 20-hour-per-day test operations without any major problems before setting a final opening date.

After repeated attempts to hit that mark, that threshold was passed Saturday, according to Walker.

"Completing a project of this magnitude, entirely with private money and under budget, is a tremendous accomplishment, especially since this is a unique system that is the most advanced of its kind in the world," John Haycock, chairman of the monorail company, said in a prepared statement.

Monorail officials have said they preferred delaying the opening and working kinks out of the system over quickly opening the system and then suffering reputation-killing surprise breakdowns.

Officials at the Regional Transportation Commission, which does not operate the monorail but has a strong interest in the Las Vegas Valley's overall mass transit network, said they had no worries the system would be stillborn.

"This is a first-time system. It's a huge undertaking. A few days here or there, a few weeks here or there is insignificant compared to the magnitude of the project," said Ingrid Reisman, a spokeswoman for the RTC. "There were never any concerns that it would happen."

In the coming days, monorail system testing largely will be reduced to between 8 a.m. and midnight, the monorail's operating hours for its first two months of operations.

"We're not going to max the system the day it'll open. But it'll be open for service. People can ride it," Walker said.

Eventually, the monorail will run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

Next week, monorail officials plan to host various Las Vegas hotel workers for "customer service training," Walker said. "They will be allowing resort employees to come out and see the system, so they can inform tourists and travelers that the system is there."

Walker said those workers will be key to steering riders toward the monorail. "Our biggest advertising is our resort partners," he said. "Word of mouth will be the best thing."

The system is projected to serve around 50,000 passengers daily.

Las Vegas police and Clark County Fire Department officials also will be taking last looks at the system before its opening. Emergency response crews have had simulated accident drills at the monorail.

On July 14, the day before the monorail opens to the public, officials plan to have a ceremonial opening for local, national and international VIPs and the media. Walker declined to divulge who may be among the invited VIPs.

Walker said "thousands of people" are expected for that event, which will include fireworks and separate caterers at different stations. "It'll be a four-mile-long party," he said.

Once the system opens to the public, fares will be $3 each way, $5.50 for round trips and $10 for all-day passes.

Walker said he believes the slow pace of opening the monorail will be quickly forgotten by potential riders, who did not scrutinize the system as closely as media observers.

"People planning their trips to Las Vegas are looking for it 30 days out or a couple of weeks out. They're not planning it a year in advance," he said.

The monorail's builders, Bombardier Transportation of Montreal and Granite Construction of Watsonville, Calif., face more than $11 million in fines for missing a contractual target completion date of Jan. 20.

Officials with the monorail company and Bombardier have said they would meet after the system opens to negotiate a fair penalty that may or may not approximate the contractual penalty.

The delays will deny the monorail the title of being the valley's first rapid transit system. Instead, that title goes to the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX. The system of high-tech express buses opens to the public around 10 a.m. today along Las Vegas Boulevard North.

A new Citizens Area Transit bus route, the Monorail/Downtown Connector Route 551, also will begin July 15. The route will roughly trace the path of a planned monorail extension between the Sahara station, the Fremont Street Experience and the Downtown Transit Center.

Route 551 will serve as a stand-in for the $450 million extension until it is finished around 2007 or later.