Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. Curtis Myles President of Las Vegas Monorail Co. says finances have improved recently

Clark County commissioners signed off Wednesday on a plan to extend the Las Vegas Monorail south to McCarran International Airport, a move they hope will improve the struggling rail line's ridership.

"Without the extension, we're probably condemning this system to mediocrity or even failure," Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said.

But the commissioners' 4-0 vote for the proposed route from the MGM Grand to the airport does not guarantee the 4.2-mile extension will ever be built.

It merely arms the private Las Vegas Monorail Co. with the initial municipal approval its officials need before trying to seek investors willing to bankroll the $500 million project.

Curtis Myles, president and chief executive of the company, declined to speak with the Review-Journal about the company's prospects at luring investors to a project with a troubled history.

But banking industry analysts have said the company faces a tough sell to financiers, considering its fiscal outlook led credit analyzing service Fitch Ratings earlier this year to downgrade the company's rating to junk bond status.

Woodbury said before the vote that the county is pledging no taxpayer money toward building the extension and is under no obligation to bail out the project if it flops.

"There's no public money being put forth here," he said.

Myles told commissioners in a presentation before their vote that the monorail's finances have improved recently. But the figures he reported do not bode well for the company's solvency without a turnaround.

Annual revenue is up to $39 million, he said, but the annual operating costs are running at $27 million and the debt service payments are $34 million a year. Myles said even if its finances do not improve, the company has sufficient cash reserves to continue operating until 2010.

Greg Borgel, a development consultant representing the company, briefed commissioners on plans showing the extension running north from the MGM to Harmon, east to Swenson Street, south to Russell Road and east to the site of McCarran's future Terminal 3.

Monorail stations along the extended route are planned at the site of the planned W Resort Hotel on Harmon, at the Hard Rock Hotel and on Swenson near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to serve events at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Two stations would be built at McCarran, one near the planned Terminal 3 and another at Terminal 1 on the north side of the airport's baggage claim area.

Monorail officials hope to start building in early 2008, with a projected completion date three years later.

Myles said the extension is vital because of the following:

• 70 percent of passengers arriving at McCarran are headed to a five-mile stretch of the Strip.

• nearly 40,000 new hotel rooms are expected to open there over the next three years.

• No plans exist to widen Las Vegas Boulevard, which reached capacity in the late 1990s, or other north-south arterials used to travel between the Strip and airport.

A cabdriver was one of two citizens who spoke against approving the plan. Responding to his comments, Woodbury said Las Vegas visitors must have new choices for getting to the Strip beyond standing in line at McCarran's cab stand.

"Our tourists coming to town cannot be waiting for hours, and sometimes it is hours, waiting for a taxicab," Woodbury said.

How many people the monorail company thinks will ride the extension remains unclear. A study due in several weeks is expected to include ridership estimates.

But monorail officials do not have much of a track record in accurately projecting passenger loads. They forecasted 53,000 passengers would ride the existing monorail each day, but daily ridership is running closer to 20,000.

Myles told commissioners the pending figures will be more accurate.

"We're going to be very conservative in our estimates," he said.

More public hearings must be held and more commission approvals granted before the project proceeds in earnest. Commissioners will be asked to sign off on station design plans, traffic studies and granting of rights of way.

Commissioners Lynette Boggs McDonald, Tom Collins and Yvonne Atkinson Gates were absent for Wednesday's hearing.

Besides Woodbury, one of the other three commissioners present for the vote spoke on the issue.

Commissioner Myrna Williams sought a guarantee from monorail officials that they would not seek to eliminate any surface street traffic lanes along the route to build stations or accommodate the columns supporting the elevated monorail guideway.

Monorail officials agreed, and Woodbury added the caveat as a condition of the commission's approval of the extension.