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 )
The monorail should have been updated and expanded. Instead of Musk's failed expensive looney tune tunnels, the monorail could have addressed all of Las Vegas people moving and parking problems. It's also affordable.
I'd hope they consider keeping it. I use it to travel the strip whenever I go over there. We need some form of life ght rail or something too much traffic and now building a baseball stadium on that busy corner .. SMH Vegas officials get with it!
Engineered obsolescence. Too bad. That monorail should be going to the all sport arenas, the airport and connect downtown to the strip.
When I was younger in the mid '90s, I lived and went to school in Las Vegas, me and my friends always use this monorail to get between hotels to go to the arcade and one thing that I always noticed is the majority of people who visit Vegas had absolutely no clue that there was a free monorail behind the casinos, when I used to go to it it was completely free but it seems like now they are charging. I feel like one of the biggest problems this place had was lack of awareness by tourists that it was even an option or that it was even cheap enough or basically free at a certain time, I think if they would have worked a little bit more on advertising it, it would have probably been a lot more popular but it's always seems so hidden away and it's impossible for you to know about it unless you are purposely seeking. I hope they come up with some kind of transportation system in Las Vegas because it just seems like it should be a pretty simple idea especially in a state where summertime averages about 125° f and tourists always underestimate the distances that they're walking.
First one needs to happen is we prevent anyone from California to continue to move to our city. Then prevent any company coming in and purchasing land in order to build homes on top of each other. Then we need to focus on taking care of our locals that have blood sweat and tears into building the city. Then we can stop allowing California teams to move and build stadiums when we can use those funds to fund our schooling. We can focus on transportation thereafter
We need the monorail it helps us have a reliable form of transportation to avoid busy packed streets and get to business designations and work as well as leisure it also helps our tourist be able to get around the city easier more effective and our choice love the way that they could see and view the city from it it'd be a huge mistake too destroy the monorail there's got to be a way to save it and make it better for everyone
Remember when they built the monorail back in 95 with a price tag of $650,000,000 in muni bonds? In other words, the issuer of those bonds (Clark county and the city of Las Vegas) used their power to tax the residents in order to pay the bondholders; even after the monorail went bankrupt and thus failed. And guess what? Now they've approved an electric train between CA and Las Vegas for the low taxpayer cost of $1 billion from the Department of Transportation and another $7.2 billion from the Transportation Federal Railroad Administration. Not that $8.2 billion could be used for something a little more important then hastening the separation of gullible tourists from their money. Why not waste billions building a high speed train in one of the most earthquake prone regions in North America.
The monorail was useless. IT NEVER EVEN WENT DOWNTOWN OR TO THE AIRPORT. Poor design, poor locations, poor route, stupid, stupid and stupid.
I'm just a visiting tourist, but wouldn't extending the monorail to the airport put a lot of cabbies and rideshares out of business?
Can we at least name it the Harry Ried Monorail?
I heard the taxi cab authority prevented the monorail going to the airport. Countless big, better cities have some sort of light rail connecting the airport to the city center, Seattle, NY, Philly, etc...but not LV!! So glad I don't live there anymore. Plus running out of water, too crowded, and not affordable anymore l.
I've been here for 5 years and we use the Monorail at least 3 times a week its cheaper to ride the parking is so expensive 20 to 50 dollars. Some people can not afford Uber we need the Monorail. Can anyone use the Vegas Loop.?
My wife and I have been residents of Las Vegas for 20 years and neither of us has ever ridden the monorail. It's not customer friendly/accessible. If it's difficult for locals to navigate to, imagine how tourists feel. The tram needs more stops as well as stops on the west side of the strip. More signage, that shows what's in the upcoming stop, no different than the airport does. One finds it odd that a promotional/transportation tool such as the monorail doesn't show profit. That sends up huge red flags of poor management or an intentional disregard for profitable operations, perhaps using it as a tax write off. Before closing it, how about selling it to a private company that would be more inclined to turn a profit and upgrade they system. Not doing so sounds as if they want to bury the fact that someone or more than someone may have been pilfering funds and the only way to hide that paper trail is to tear down and bury the entire project!
To all the people saying why not extend it to the airport. While a great idea, I'm sure the taxi authority has done everything they possibly could to keep that from happening. Same with extending it to Fremont. Personally I would be willing to pay considerably higher for passes if it did mean being able to travel between the airport and Fremont.
Didn't anybody actually read the article? LVCVA bought it, so they could kill it, to make way for Vegas loop, WHICH WILL go to the airport, Alegiant Stadium, and some of the suburbs. The article clearly states, the system is outdated, and they don't make parts for it anymore. It's dead. Boring company is paying for the project, so no, it is not tax payer funds. No we don't need light rail, as this is the system they are using, and can transport similar levels of passengers as light rail. No, the tunnels can not be converted for light rail, they are built specifically for teslas, and have already been running for a few years. The sky is not falling, the Vegas loop will fill the role the monorail was doing, only better, faster, and to more locations. Read. The. Article.?♂?