Las Vegas Monorail’s fiscal rebound brief; decline returns

The Las Vegas Monorail reported 1.2 million people bought tickets in the third quarter, an 11.9 percent decline from the same period last year and the lowest quarterly total since full-fledged service resumed in 2005. The $5.6 million in revenues was down 5.2 percent from a year earlier and was the second-lowest total ever.

With the rebound in convention attendance during the busy winter season, the monorail had showed improvements as attendees rode the elevated train from their hotels to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The monorail runs roughly parallel to the Strip to the east and has one stop at the center.

However, as the convention traffic slowed during summer, compounded by the closure of the Sahara at the north end of the line, traffic again fell.

For the nine months to date, the 3.8 million passengers were down 3.2 percent from a year earlier and the $17.4 million in revenues were down 2.1 percent. By contrast, ridership hit 7.9 million passengers and revenues hit $23 million during the same period in 2005.