LAS
VEGAS -- The Strip has Venetian gondoliers who aren't Italian, a waterfall that's also a volcano, and a pyramid-shaped hotel named for an Egyptian city with no pyramids.
So it should come as no surprise that the city is about to open the nation's first public transit system that's not "public" in any of the senses in which the word is typically used in transportation circles.
The 4-mile, $650 million Las Vegas Monorail -- which officially opens tomorrow with the predictable "Sin City" fanfare, showgirls and fireworks -- was built without public money. And, unlike any other transit system in the Northern Hemisphere, it is expected to make a profit.
Its purpose, at least in this first phase, is not to help locals get around or to alleviate traffic, much. Rather, the system is designed to move -- and entertain -- tourists, right down to the Star Trek-themed four-car train coated inside and out in green and black. An announcer informs riders they're about to be "assimilated."
"Without a doubt, it's going to be the coolest public transit ride in the country," said Cam Walker, president of Transit Systems Management, the nonprofit company empowered by the Clark County Commission to manage the monorail.
Aside from the theme trains -- another, the Monster Train, sports ads for the Hanson Beverage Co. drink -- the ride itself glides along a road parallel and east of the Strip, providing some impressive views from 70 feet at its peak. The gray poured-concrete platforms are, at present, antiseptic, but some will eventually have video screens to provide entertainment and to promote resort shows.
Six casino stops line the route, as well as one at the Las Vegas Convention Center, thereby connecting 24,000 hotel rooms with one of the nation's busiest and largest convention facilities. Expansion to the downtown Las Vegas casino area, about 2 miles to the north, is planned by 2008 and to McCarran International Airport, about 3 miles south of the route, by 2012. Government grants and loans will fund those segments, which aren't expected to make a profit.
Walker vowed that the first leg would. He contends that the combination of 20 million riders expected each year and unusual marketing and advertising deals -- like the "Trekkie-train" and a $4 million-a-year exclusive advertising deal with Nextel at the convention center stop -- will rake in more than $56 million a year. Fares start at $3 a ride, but bulk rates of $20 for 10 rides and $25 for three days are also available.
Once the expected $45 million annual cost of maintaining the system and servicing bonds is paid, the remaining $11 million will fund system upgrades and expansions, Walker said.
No major public transit system operates in the black in North America or Europe, said Donna Aggazio, spokeswoman for the American Public Transportation Association, a trade group for 1,500 North American transit agencies. New York City's subway system comes closest, recovering 67 percent of its costs through fares and advertising. In Boston, the rail system recovers 60 percent and the bus service recovers 44 percent of its cost, she said.
"There isn't a public transit system that makes a profit now, but public transportation isn't designed to make money," she said. "The rider doesn't bear all the cost of it, because there are other benefits accrued to the community. It takes other cars off the road and promotes better land use when development comes closer to rail lines."
Yet Las Vegas is unique for its intense concentration of spend-happy out-of-towners. Indeed, Sin City opens its sleek monorail as the city is greeting record crowds, with the number of visitors expected to surpass 36 million for the first time, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Casino operators on the eastside foresee a competitive advantage. The hotels with stops along the route -- the MGM Grand, Bally's, Flamingo Hilton, Paris, Sahara, Las Vegas Hilton, Imperial Palace, and Harrah's -- each pitched in millions to build their stations and walkway connectors. For a middling mid-Strip property like the Imperial Palace, seen by tourists as convenient but less luxurious than Bellagio or The Venetian, a monorail stop could spark a revival -- especially during major conventions.
"It will help increase traffic to the hotel," said Jeremy Handle, Imperial Palace spokesman. "We've always had the advantage of being in the dead center of the Strip, but the increased visibility with the station should only help us."
Not every east side hotelier is as enthusiastic. Sheldon Adelson, owner of The Venetian and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, opposed the monorail since its inception in the late 1990s. Adelson refused to donate a right-of-way and fought various proposed routes, contending that the project was a risky endeavor unlikely to bring him new patrons.
Las Vegas Sands Inc. officials declined to comment this week as the monorail debut nears, but in May Adelson's chief lieutenant, company president and chief operating officer William Weidner, told the weekly newspaper In Business Las Vegas, "It doesn't matter if there's a monorail there or not in terms of its power to attract people, but it may make a difference if it's easy to get away from here."
That sort of thinking is outmoded, said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage, which owns the MGM Grand. Feldman pointed to statistics from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority that show the average Las Vegas visitor goes to at least five properties besides the one at which they're staying.
"That [mentality] harkens back to the days when casino owners didn't want anyone leaving their properties," Feldman said. "That's a pretty antiquated way of looking at what tourists do in Las Vegas. It's part of the Las Vegas experience that, in addition to all the fun of the hotel you're staying in, you can walk right next door and get something entirely different. Anyone who still believes that they come to one hotel and never leave is missing the point.
"At the end of the day, our singular marketing objective is to help people have fun. I think most people would agree there's very little fun about sitting in traffic or parking."
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