LETTERS: Strip subway proposal expensive, flawed

To the editor:

As is so typical of any government-appointed committee or study group, the gold-plated, most expensive solution to the problem of traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard was the one proposed (“Strip subway system proposed,” May 28 Review-Journal). Subways are a very efficient way to move people, but the majority used in urban areas are not of the light-rail (read: streetcar) type, but use high-speed, heavy-rail equipment.

Given the types of subsoil found and the average depth of the water table in the Las Vegas Valley, the cost should be many times over the billions-of-dollars estimates quoted. Add in the long-forgotten, never-mapped but still-in-use utility lines, and the fun of construction really begins.

Having worked on construction of the Red Line subway in Los Angeles, I soon realized that the biggest problems came in building the stations for the line, not the tunneling. Engineers’ estimates of how long surface traffic would be disrupted were woefully short of reality.

The Regional Transportation Commission’s decision to not propose extending the monorail — either on the surface or elevated — to a reasonable southern terminal shows once again what happens to cost-effective, efficient solutions by any level of government.

JACK CORRICK

BOULDER CITY

Transportation solution must aid locals

To the editor:

While the Regional Transportation Commission’s subway proposal is indeed ambitious, it also is filled with flaws — mainly that it is aimed at benefiting tourists, not locals who commute daily to their jobs along the busy corridor (“Strip subway system proposed,” May 28 Review-Journal). What about an above-ground light rail system for east-west commuters who don’t have automobiles and are dependent on bus service that is woefully slow and has infrequent schedules?

If the RTC proposals included light rail in the middle of major east-west routes — Flamingo Road, Tropicana Avenue, Charleston Boulevard — there would probably be widespread public support for funding the projects. Besides speeding up commute times, it would slow down excessive speeding on those roadways, thereby making them safer for both motorists and pedestrians.

LEON PITT

LAS VEGAS