EDITORIAL: Maryland Parkway light-rail project shouldn’t be priority

Just two months ago, local transportation officials made the latest push to bring a light-rail system from McCarran International Airport to the Strip and ultimately to downtown. It’s a project that would likely run into the billions of dollars.

So of course, now a completely separate light-rail line — this one termed “urban light rail,” which is more like a streetcar — is being proposed, at an expected cost of $460 million.

As the Review-Journal’s Richard N. Velotta reported earlier this month, representatives of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and the Parsons engineering firm unveiled the proposal for local business leaders. The 8.7-mile route along Maryland Parkway would transport passengers from McCarran’s Terminal 1, past UNLV, the Boulevard Mall and Sunrise Hospital into downtown Las Vegas, then west to the future home of UNLV’s medical school. The system would be designed in 2018-19, followed by construction from 2020-22, with first service available in 2023.

First off, the likelihood that this project would come in on budget — or heaven forbid under budget — and on time, like any project of this magnitude, is low. Across the country, light-rail lines of all lengths have cost far more than estimated, then failed to cover operating costs and moved fewer riders than projected once they were online. Second, as we’ve previously pointed out, light rail would consume too much of Maryland’s precious right of way, even with the plan calling to run trains in the outside lanes, rather than the middle of the street.

And third, to channel from the “Star Wars” movie franchise, this is not the light-rail route you’re looking for. Our elected officials really need to look at this proposal with a skeptical eye. To have a transit investment of this kind connect the airport to UNLV, downtown and beyond, before having a light-rail system connecting the airport to Strip hotels and the Las Vegas Convention Center, is highly questionable.

The RTC has limited resources to develop transit in this community. The commission’s leadership and elected officials should be prioritizing those resources accordingly. And the public should take advantage of the opportunity to weigh in on this proposal at three meetings — today at the UNLV Student Union (11 a.m.) and Boulevard Mall (4 p.m.), and 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Bonneville Transit Center.

It’s not even yet certain that an airport-Strip-downtown light-rail system is economically viable for the short or long term. However, connecting McCarran to the Strip corridor and potentially to the convention center must be the region’s transportation priority, along with extending the monorail. Talk of any other light-rail effort should be put on the back burner — and that burner probably shouldn’t be lit for a long time.