Service Issues Delay Monorail Launch

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 4/12/2004

Las Vegas convention-goers will have to wait a few more months to ride the new monorail. The 4-mile-long system, which will connect the Las Vegas Convention Center to more than two dozen hotels, was expected to start operating in late January.

Todd Walker, spokesman for Las Vegas Monorail, said the system needs further operational testing and is now forecast to open this summer. "It's just not up to the exact service level that we require under the contract," he said. "Reliability has to be at 98 percent. We want to make sure it's the best transportation system we can offer."

The Las Vegas Convention Center station sponsored by wireless carrier Nextel Communications is still under construction, said Nextel spokeswoman Rebecca Gertsmark, adding that its opening now is scheduled for "late summer."

Walker stressed that the monorail project remains on track, even though it's been delayed. "There's nothing that we foresee that is going to stop the system from opening. It's in everybody's best interests to make sure the system is opened properly since it's going to be here for a long time."

The monorail project represents more than a decade of planning and $650 million in private financing. Initially envisioned as a 1-mile-long train to take passengers between the MGM Grand and Bally's Hotel, the project took off when the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail won the franchise to operate a state-mandated public monorail system.

Bombardier Transportation, which designed Disney World's heavily traveled monorail system, and Granite Construction, Nevada's largest civil contractor, won the bid to build the system.

Las Vegas Monorail has secured corporate sponsorships to help defray costs. The trains will run between seven stations every minute between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m., traveling at speeds of up to 50 mph. The cost will be $3 per ride. Eventually, the system will be expanded to McCarran Intl. Airport and Fremont Street.