Las Vegas Monorail

The Las Vegas Monorail Co., though formed as a not-for-profit company, filed Wednesday with federal bankruptcy court due to falling ridership, attributed to the economic recession. The company oversees the roughly 4-mile elevated service connecting hotels on the Las Vegas Strip withthe Convention Center. etc etc etc

http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news ... uptcy.html

Consider for a moment that every casino in Las Vegas seems to have mammoth, and entirely free, parking facilities. Consider for a moment that it is very pleasant to walk down the Vegas Strip, although there is disturbing trend towards the rental of electric scooters by young, able bodied adults. It isn't too hard to see why the monorail company has fallen on hard times. Why pay a $5 fare to ride a monorail when you have the option of either driving or expending shoe leather? Actually, even for people who don't drive, it would make far more sense to stay at a hotel off the Vegas strip, taking a taxi to the strip itself, and enjoying the walk. Vegas is very pedestrian friendly - for people who are able to, or are ambitious enough, to walk.

My guess is that there's far more money to be made from renting scooters to lazy 20 and 30-something year old tourists than selling monorail tickets.

I've been to Vegas 6 or 7 times. Every time, I've stayed on or very near the strip. Not once have I ever taken the monorail or considered it. It can be useful if you need to go a far distance up or down. For example, getting from the MGM Grand to the Venetian. However, the stations are all behind the casinos on the east side. If you are on the west side of the strip, it's a long walk just to get to the nearest station. Once you arrive at your stop, it's another long walk to your final destination. If there are 2 or 3 of you, it's cheaper, and often times faster to grab a cab at the valet stand and pay for a 2 mile or so ride to where you want to go.

The two times I've been to vegas for a convention, I've always wondered why the monorail line was never extended to the Airport. In my opinion that would have made this line viable, useful, and a attractive alternative to cars/taxi. Right now its quite useless. Connection to the airport would be a excellent alternative to renting a car to drive 4 miles and park until you leave or standing in the cattleshutes for a Taxi.

Sidyin wrote:The two times I've been to vegas for a convention, I've always wondered why the monorail line was never extended to the Airport. In my opinion that would have made this line viable, useful, and a attractive alternative to cars/taxi. Right now its quite useless. Connection to the airport would be a excellent alternative to renting a car to drive 4 miles and park until you leave or standing in the cattleshutes for a Taxi.

You're absolutely right. An airport extension and an extension to downtown would make the Vegas Monorail an invaluable transportation option.

I cannot understand any modern city that has light rail, monorail, or commuter rail, and no airport connection. That should be the first part of construction of any system is downtown-airport. In this day, I hate driving to the airport, then paying $10-20/day to park, then transloading luggage to a bus to the terminal when the L gets me to the airport terminal.

Business is business everywhere.
In LV the airport is the only place where you have to pay for parking and also the ground transportation (cab and bus) is not very cheap (in comparison to other places in the town).

451 million for a 4 to 5 mile system? according to railway age,Am I reading this right?

it's alive..... although suspended: ProgressiveRailroading.com

The Las Vegas Monorail Co. has suspended construction of two monorail stops on the Las Vegas Strip due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local news report.

All monorail activities related to the company’s Mandalay Bay extension and Sands Avenue Station project, which include construction of a monorail stop at the future MSG Sphere entertainment venue, have been put on hold, a monorail spokesperson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Construction of the MSG Sphere, located at The Venetian off of Sands Avenue, has also been suspended by its developers. Overall project completion — originally scheduled to open in 2021 — is expected to be delayed, developers said in a March press release.

Monorail operations have been suspended since March 18 due to the pandemic.
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