End of the Line for Las Vegas Monorail
Posted on: April 5, 2024, 12:52h.
Last updated on: August 31, 2024, 05:35h.
When news broke in late 2020 that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) had purchased the Las Vegas Monorail Co. out of bankruptcy, fans of the once-futuristic tram system saw it as a lifeline.
It was really a death warrant.
What most people don’t realize is that the LVCVA’s plans included an $11 million fee for dismantling the monorail, perhaps as early as 2028, but definitely by 2030.
Last Stop Coming Up
The problem is that operating the monorail, for which the LVCVA pays a Los Gatos, Calif. company up to $500K annually, has become like driving a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California SWB Spider. Sooner or later, it will break down and require a replacement part that can’t be obtained because it’s not manufactured anymore.
And old monorail parts aren’t the kind of things that get listed on eBay.
The monorail employs nine Innovia 200 trams, each with four cars, which its four-mile track was custom-designed to fit. Those trams were only manufactured by Bombardier out of Quebec, which no longer makes them. In fact, after racking up billions of dollars of debt, it no longer makes trams at all. Bombardier sold its rail business for $6.7 billion to French competitor Alstom in 2021.
Alstom only manufactures a newer model, the Innovia 300, whose beam width of 27.2 inches renders it incompatible with the 26-inch older model.
For a while, monorail executives reportedly rooted for Disney World to upgrade its Mark VI trams so they could buy the retired stock. (The first monorail tracks to operate in Vegas, connecting the MGM Grand and Bally’s from 1995 to 2002, used two retired Disney World Mark IVs.)
However, the Mouse House is in the same no-win situation as Las Vegas. It can buy an all-new monorail system but would need to construct all-new tracks. It’s not impossible for a company to develop a new monorail to fit the existing one’s tracks but nobody is rushing to step up to that very niche plate.
Off the Rails
The Las Vegas monorail began when the original MGM Grand-to-Bally’s system expanded to include seven more stops along the resort corridor in 2003.
It has never made a profit — but it was never designed to — since it was considered a public service. Though no public money was used in its $650 million construction ($1.12 billion today), Nevada did provide the project with the largest investment of state-issued bonds in the state’s history.
Other than its latest bankruptcy, which was its second, another hint that something wasn’t right was the relatively small price paid by the LVCVA, $24.3 million, for a system that cost so much to build.
A third hint is the deafening silence surrounding the monorail’s plans for a Mandalay Bay/Allegiant Stadium extension and a stop at MSG Sphere. Both were approved by Clark County in 2018 and expected to open by 2021.
The monorail even announced, in October 2019, that it had secured $33.5 million in financing from Dallas-based Preston Hollow Capital for the expansion.
The completion of this initial financing is an important and necessary step in our expansion strategy for this system, which already provides substantial mobility benefits along our busy resort corridor,” Las Vegas Monorail Co. CEO Curtis Myles said in a statement at the time.
“With two new stations, we will multiply those benefits for our customers, resort partners, sponsors, and our community.”
Neither station gets mentioned anymore by the LVCVA.
Crazy Train
So why would the LVCVA purchase an old transportation system that they knew was doomed?
Because the monorail had a noncompete clause that prohibited any other company from building another off-street transportation system for the Strip.
And the LVCVA had already signed, in 2019, a $48 million contract with Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build the Vegas Loop, which would probably have violated the monorail’s noncompete clause.
Monorail tickets cost $5.50 for a one-way ride, $13.45 for an unlimited 24-hour pass, and $57.50 for a seven-day pass via the system’s website. Monorail trains arrive every four to eight minutes.
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Last Comments ( 91 )
Was there for World of concrete 2024 when the tram broke down and we had Get a technician to come out and release the ebrake and rolled the car back to the horse shoe stop then we had to go to Ober for a ride.
Last time I was there a few months ago, I bought a 3 day pass. I was staying and playing at Excalibur and playing at the Venetian. I walked so much from the stations to the action I had to buy a new pair of shoes. Its not well planned, almost no one was on it the 3 days I was there. The taxi unions arent that strong anymore, beef up Strip transport with light rail and connect directly to Reid airport.
Been going to Vegas since 1981. Was completely different and better back then. Hotels they are making are too large. Taking a cab on the strip is a joke. Now you have to pay for parking.We use the monorail every year we go to Vegas. It is convenient clean and not expensive. That was the sales pitch when they wanted to build it. What changed now. Stay on the North side of the strip. If they remove the monorail will go somewhere else for vacation.
You end up walking the same distance to and from the monorail as you would if you just walked the strip. If you want to go from MGM to the Strat, just take an Uber. If it went to Fremont and the airport, it would be an asset worth keeping, but it doesn’t.
Vegas needs a light rail/metro from the airport to downtown that can run either elevated above or in a tunnel below the strip.
As a retired employee of LACMTA in LA for 46 years Las Vegas needs mass transit especially for the airport, strip, and downtown areas. Working in both departments, bus & rail, your transportation planners and politicians are looking at a bandaid approach to solve gridlock conditions throughout the city. The Elon Musk tube project from the convention center only serves a few strip hotels and offers a very low number percentage in commuting people from point A to B. Now, a new baseball stadium is going to be built on a very busy corner on the strip. Wake up city leaders, transportation projects should have been developed by now to combat more traffic, people, and overall growth in Las Vegas. In 5 years or less this city will become a mini Los Angeles without mass transit to counter our growth.
The monorail looked like a good idea since the traffic along the Strip is terrible and it is broiling hot half the year. Your taxi is parked most of the time and the bus service is something you'll try once. It didn't work for several reasons; it's probably the slowest monorail in the world, its air-conditioning is pis poor, and you have to walk miles to use it. To be really useful the monorail should loop around from the airport to the major hotels instead of back and forth at a snail's pace. I'd say live and learn except I don't think that will happen.
The monorail was an ill-conceived dream of Bob Broadbent, the former aviation director and well known in the community circles. Nice guy, bad idea. The exaggerated ridership and cost to operate were just that. Puffing! Now we can think about the Brightline Express, from nowhere Ca to LV. With that said: do we need hi-speed rail, of course, well maybe. Not at $400.00 round trip. MfC
Nice....can they tell me how will employees get in their jobs during the stupid F1? Especially to the inner circle? This F1 monorail was the only system how to get in and out - as streets were closed for buses and cars. So now they want us not to work obviously. As I do not have a car and I will not walk 10 miles a day... I doubt Musk tunnels will have public transportation open to everyone during F1
Kinda think this is due to poor marketing. I lived here for 3 years before I even heard of the monorail. When staying at a hotel, a concierge has never said to anyone in my party, 'you can take the monorail'. They'd say something like 'it's a bit of a hike, perhaps Uber'. I only learned about it by stumbling on a sign in a hotel that pointed the way to a terminal. ONE HOTEL. Then there was no one to ask about it - like where does it go, how often does it run. It could've been a great resource, I think. Much preferred to trekking up & down the strip EVERY TIME.
Well, sir, there's nothing on earth Like a genuine, bona fide Electrified, six-car monorail What'd I say?
The monorail was built before rideshare was a thing. The reason why it didn't go to the airport was that taxis threatened to sue if it connected to airport. At the time, taxis also threatened to shut down the Strip in protest by clogging all the lanes as well.
Remember when 1st built kept breaking down, parts would fall off. After 9/11 we used to joke that no terrorists would bomb the monorail as it was to dangerous to ride for them.
Vegas needs light rail or subway. Allegiant is not accessible, and street traffic terrible, see F1. Rail to airport, and suburbs is needed, especially now with 3 million residents and obscene parking fees. Think about the residents for a change, and not fleecing the occasional tourists.
The priority for the Convention Bureau is to have people WALKING. Riding means the vendors in-between stops will get missed...walking looky-loos are the ones who will enter a store or restaurant. With The Strip's conversion into an outdoor street mall now, with no need to actually enter a big casino to eat or shop, walking along the sidewalk is the priority the LVCVA wants. A monorail system goes against those priorities. Light Rail from the airport to the bottom of The Strip (New York, New York maybe), then to the Convention Center, continuing on to Fremont Street, and maybe down to Southgate where the hoped-for NBA stadium will be, and extending to neighborhoods would make a lot more sense. It is regrettable that government leaders spent $650Million on a Betamax technology.