The number of people riding the Las Vegas Monorail remained virtually flat last month, and this month doesn't figure to be any better, monorail officials said Thursday.
But monorail officials said they think the sluggish turnstile count of 28,820 daily riders in October was more a sign of a seasonal tourist slowdown than a lack of interest in the $650 million rapid-transit line.
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"Now that the monorail has successfully operated for more than 10 consecutive months without incident, we're stepping up our marketing efforts with the convention and travel industry, although we expect next month's numbers to be relatively the same as October," Curtis Myles, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Monorail Co., said in a prepared statement.
Earlier, Myles said he expected ridership to pick up a bit in October and the first half of November before falling off through year's end, and picking back up early next year.
The October daily ridership average was actually just behind September's pace, when 28,893 people used the monorail each day.
Average daily ridership peaked in July, when 32,928 people used the system daily.
In October, the monorail brought in $84,507 a day in farebox revenues, a tad behind September's daily norm of $85,328.
The system has yet to make a profit, though officials hope that a boost in ridership and advertising sales in 2006 will help the system break even. The system is about $50,000 a day short of fare and ad revenues paying for all operating costs and debt.
The monorail did hit one milestone last month: on Oct. 27, it carried its 10 millionth paying passenger since opening in mid-2004.
The system spent much of 2004 sidelined because of persistent mechanical problems, including three instances of metal parts falling from moving trains.
So far this year, the system has been shut down three times because of technical problems.
Despite the ridership and financial shortfalls, monorail officials are studying a possible extension of the four-mile line, which now runs along the Strip's east side, to McCarran International Airport and the west side of the Strip.
