LAS VEGAS -- It's a safe bet that no public
transit system debuted quite like this, with the governor giving
his speech flanked by showgirls in four-foot headdresses and with
the inaugural train traveled by a Prince impersonator, comedian
Rita Rudner and a shirtless pirate.
Yet the $650 million Las Vegas Monorail, which opened to the
public July 15 after the media event and a five-hour gala with
elaborate buffets at each of the seven stops, is no ordinary
transit system.
This is transit as amusement, a privately funded public rail
system with management who promote it for its sidelong views
of the Las Vegas Strip and its themed four-car trains.
One is bathed inside and out in green and black and promotes
a casino's Star Trek simulated-motion ride with an announcer
warning riders they "will be assimilated."
All the trains have typical subway-car configurations of seats
lining the perimeter, though there's no way to move from one
car to another.
Even the idea of building a monorail, which provides a quieter
but more wobbly ride than dual-track trains with a futuristic
look, was an effort to evoke a Disney sensibility.
And it's technologically innovative. The Las Vegas Monorail
is the first driverless fixed-guideway train in an urban setting,
and it's equipped with sensors that weigh the train to detect
its passenger load so the air conditioners can crank higher
or lower to keep the temperature constant, said Helene Gagnon,
spokeswoman for the Montreal-based transportation giant Bombardier
Inc., which built these trains as well as Disney's monorail
cars.
"Definitely one of the reasons we chose the monorail was because
it provides a theme-parky feel," said Cam Walker, president
of Transit Systems Management LLC, which manages the monorail.
Still, as always in Las Vegas, the entertainment is serious
business. The 3.9-mile track rolls on elevated pillars along
a north-south road parallel to, but east of, the Strip and includes
six stops at casino-resorts and one at the Las Vegas Convention
Center.
Each property with a stop had to contribute millions of dollars
to build the stations and attractive walkways into their hotels.
Unlike other transit systems, this one wasn't built to service
local people or to alleviate traffic on the Las Vegas Valley's
increasingly crowded roadways. These trains exists primarily
to ferry millions of tourists and convention-goers around a
destination more conveniently than waiting in traffic in expensive
taxis or walking under the desert sun.
In a few cases, such as the stop at the Paris resort, riders
must walk through the casino to get to any other property of
out to the Strip. In other cases, such as the convention center,
Las Vegas Hilton and Sahara, the stop allows access to the sidewalks.
Walker's team sold $650 million in tax-free bonds, using the
state's bond rating but insuring the debt so Nevada won't be
liable in a default. Private investors bought it with the unusual
promise that the Las Vegas Monorail will not only recoup its
costs but also turn an $11 million profit over operating and
bond-service costs in its first year.
By Walker's calculations, they'll make $56 million a year
in advertising and from the fares of a projected 20 million
riders paying $3 for a single ride or less if they buy multiple-ticket
packages.
Any surplus would be put into system improvements and expansions.
Some 30,000 rides generated about $98,000 on fares on the first
day, the only day for which statistics have been released. That's
less than the 53,000 rides-a-day goal for the system but Walker
noted it'll take time for people to become aware of the service.
Also, the train is running only from 8 a.m. to midnight, but
expands this fall to 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
If it does turn a profit, the Las Vegas Monorail will be the
only known major public transit system to do so. New York City's
subway comes the closest in North America by recovering 67 percent
of its operating costs. The Chicago Transit Authority recovers
about 44 percent for its rail operations and 40 percent for
its bus service, according to figures from the American Public
Transportation Association, a trade group representing 1,500
transit agencies in North America.
"No public transit system we know of makes money," said Donna
Aggazio, spokeswoman for the association. "It's not generally
the purpose of public transportation. With public transportation,
the public has decided that there are benefits to the community
that are worth the cost of spending money on the system."
Walker acknowledges that the profitability of the Las Vegas
Monorail is predicted only for this piece of the project, the
first phase of plans that anticipate a 2.3-mile extension to
the north to the older cluster of casinos by 2008 and a three-mile
branch to the south to McCarran International Airport by 2012.
After that, the train may cross the Las Vegas Strip and serve
hotels on its west side as well.
Those projects will use public money and will turn the Las
Vegas Monorail into a public-private partnership, said Curtis
Myles, deputy general manager of the Regional Transportation
Commission, an agency that oversees county traffic issues.
The $453.9 million needed for the second phase includes about
$303 million in federal grants and loans, about $42 million
from a fund the RTC collects through local taxes and the remainder
in bonds issued to private investors as well as profits from
the first leg.
Major national advertisers seem to agree with Walker about
the potential of the first segment, giving rise to such sponsorships
as that of Nextel.
The mobile phone maker wrapped a four-car train with its bright
yellow logo and has a $4 million-a-year package that includes
building a 15,000-square-foot store and exhibition space atop
the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The monorail links the nation's busiest convention center
to 24,000 hotel rooms.
"Vegas is really a unique and completely different market
than any other because it's a national market," said Miguel
Lacuona, a Nextel senior marketing representative. "Right in
front of the biggest convention center in the world, customers
we do business with or desire to do business with are going
to see it. This location is prime real estate to develop a brand."
Riders the first weekend seemed intrigued. Some complained
that the fares are significantly higher than those of other
public transit systems, considering the short distance it covers,
but Gregory Michaels of Seattle noted that he's on vacation
so spending a little more to get around is "just another indulgence,
I guess."
"I think it's cool that they have this train," said Michaels,
33. "My boyfriend thinks maybe we'll even see some celebrities
on here."
It's possible. Comedian Rudner, who lives in a luxury high-rise
condominium building a block from the Las Vegas Hilton, says
she'll occasionally take the train at that hotel's stop to the
one at the MGM Grand and then walk across the Strip on the pedestrian
bridge to the New York-New York, where she performs nightly.
"It'll be a lot faster than driving there with all the traffic,"
she said. "Plus, then I can have a drink or two on the way home."
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