Las Vegas Monorail celebrates 10th year

Riders on the Las Vegas Monorail sang karaoke, played poker and crossed their fingers on Saturday that they would win a luxurious prize as part of the monorail’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

Participants got a wristband, a punch card and a gift bag with coupons, pens and mints. At each station, riders could get a playing card and a hole punched in their cards. People who completed their punch cards or collected a winning poker hand of playing cards were entered into the raffles to win prizes packages including hotel suites, spa packages and flight vouchers.

At the Sahara monorail station, people getting on and off trains could sing karaoke for prizes. Riders at the station by Bally’s could have their caricatures drawn for free and do the “Cupid Shuffle” dance. Stations gave out popcorn, drinks and cupcakes. Every station had a DJ, except for the Flamingo station, which had a duo of steel drummers.

It was an important day for the monorail. Over the past 10 years the monorail has had about 60 million riders and experienced a lot of changes.

It started out as a 1-mile line from MGM to Bally’s, and, for a while, it was known more for its shortcomings and failures, said Las Vegas Monorail President and CEO Curtis Myles. But ridership is starting to grow again.

Myles announced a rebranding effort that includes a new logo and forthcoming changes to make the monorail more user-friendly.

He said the company has gone to great lengths to show that they value their customers and that the monorail itself is valuable.

The nine trains’ small cars each have about 18 seats and space for wheelchairs and people standing. But unlike most public buses in the Las Vegas Valley, the trains rarely get to be standing-room-only, explained one monorail employee. The monorail does get busy on weekends, and trains are often packed full of people during the major trade shows such as CES.

Last year, 1.2 million visitors came to the convention center, said Dawn Christensen, senior director of communications for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, so transportation has to be a priority.

“Over the past decade, the Las Vegas Monorail has been a valuable transportation option for convention delegates and has significantly enhanced access to and from the convention center,” Christensen said. “We greatly appreciate the work they do every day with our conventions to make sure our visitors have a positive experience while in Las Vegas.”

Most of the riders are tourists and conference attendees, who stay at one of the big resorts around one of the monorail’s seven stations along the 4 miles between the SLS near Sahara Avenue and the MGM Grand near Tropicana Avenue. Riders pay between $5 for one ride and $12 for a 24-hour pass.

Addressing the main complaint against the monorail — that it doesn’t go to McCarran International Airport — Myles said that it is an eager participant in a transportation committee including the Taxicab Authority, Regional Transportation Commission, Nevada Department of Transportation and others to come up with plans that will benefit the whole valley.

“If what’s best for this community is making it easier for paths to get in and out of the hotels, (the airport and the Strip), making it easier for people to access the monorail by extending it to other convention centers or the airport, making it easier for our citizens to get into the resort corridor and out, where their primary places of work are, by developing a light rail system. Then, if we all collectively agree that’s what’s best for everybody, then that’s what we’re going to do,” Myles said.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.