A little bit of MAGIC doesn't appear to be the cure to a prolonged ridership slump for the Las Vegas Monorail, system officials said Tuesday.

Officials did not expect many new riders to come from the Men's Apparel Guild in California show, known as MAGIC, despite the estimated 105,000 attendees expected at the Las Vegas Convention Center through Thursday.

MAGIC is one of the biggest annual conventions in Southern Nevada, and the Convention Center is central stop on the 4-mile monorail line.

"We're seeing a slight bump (upward in riders). It's not like we would see at other shows," said Ingrid Reisman, vice president of the Las Vegas Monorail Co.

"Their attendees like the (bus) shuttles. They like the cabs," Reisman said. "MAGIC has traditionally not been heavy users of the system."

But in the long run, monorail officials are making bulk ticket sales to conventions the cornerstone of their turnaround plan for the rail line, which carried just 19,379 people each day last month, according to monorail statistics.

That was a 41 percent dropoff from the record 32,929 daily riders averaged in July of 2005, and well below the 50,000 riders once projected and no longer targeted as a daily norm.

So far this year, the monorail hasn't topped an average of 25,000 daily riders in any month, failing to reach the 20,000 mark in four of seven months.

Reisman didn't expect this week's or this month's numbers to be much different. She said she could not say if a lengthy monorail breakdown during MAGIC in 2004 has hurt ridership at that annual event, though she added the monorail has a good relationship with show organizers.

The $650 million, privately financed monorail has not turned a profit since opening in mid-2004 and establishing regular service late that year. It has seen its bond rating fall into "junk" status as a result, though deep cash reserves are expected to keep the monorail solvent into at least 2008.

Analysts and monorail officials expected a ridership slip after an increase in the base one-way fare to $5 from $3 in January, but hoped higher fares would result in greater daily revenue.

Daily farebox receipts last month were $85,718, a loss of almost 10 percent from the $95,035 collected in July 2005.

An analyst has estimated that the monorail needs $123,000 in daily farebox revenue to break even, absent an influx of alternate revenue.

With the monorail collecting $4.42 per passenger, after accounting for ticket discounts, at last month's rate, it would take nearly 28,000 riders for the monorail to break even.

Monorail officials have said they hoped new marketing efforts, including convention tie-ins and ticket distribution to tourists through various Strip hotels, would improve the transit system's finances.

Reisman said it could be six months to a year before those efforts show up in the form of busier turnstiles. "I'd love to see it sooner, but I have to be realistic," Reisman said.

In the long run, the monorail also hopes to build a $500 million extension to McCarran International Airport and an $800 million loop to three other planned or existing Strip area convention centers in hopes of increasing ridership.