Repeatedly and publicly hammered over falling ridership numbers in 2006, the Las Vegas Monorail apparently has decided that less news will be good news in 2007.

Monorail officials on Thursday said that from now on they will release ridership reports once every three months, not monthly as the system has done since opening to the public in 2004.

An explanation for the change by Las Vegas Monorail Co. was vague. "We're a private company," spokeswoman Angela Torres said. "Current management doesn't feel it's necessary to release the numbers monthly."

The last month for which ridership data was released is December 2006, when the system had its worst ridership month ever. It averaged only 15,430 daily riders that month.

The monorail saw its ridership collapse by more than 30 percent in all of 2006 as ridership averaged 19,219 riders a day. In 2005, the system carried 28,122 on a typical day.

When the monorail first opened to the public, officials predicted as many as 50,000 daily riders, a target no longer seen as realistic for the four-mile line that runs between Sahara and Tropicana avenues behind the Strip's east side.

The privately financed $650 million line never has made a profit and has seen its credit rating fall to "junk" bond status. The monorail is believed to have lost more than $20 million last year, though losses are being covered by a sizable reserve fund.

The monorail's severe ridership plunge last year coincided with a late December 2005 one-way fare increase to $5 per adult, up from $3.

Taxpayers are not obligated to bail out the monorail should it go bankrupt. Without some sort of voluntary bailout offered by the public or private sector, bondholders and an insurance company would bear the cost.

Officials hope a planned $500 million extension to McCarran International Airport will boost ridership. But, given its poor credit rating, it's not yet clear how the monorail company will fund that extension, planned to open as soon as 2011.