Glitches keep passengers off monorail route in Las Vegas

By Ken Ritter
The Associated Press

JOE CAVARETTA / AP A pedestrian walks near the Sahara Hotel station of the Las Vegas Monorail last month, which was supposed to be whisking tourists by now between some hotel casinos and the Convention Center.

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"We're taking a taxi, and it sucks," said the 42-year-old nail-care consultant from Baldwin, N.Y., waiting with a friend for a $12 cab ride.

If the $650 million rail project were not months behind schedule, she could have whisked between the always-busy Convention Center and some of the Strip's biggest hotel-casinos for $3.

Instead, passengerless trains glide between stations on white elevated concrete rails above a side street behind the Las Vegas Strip.

The opening, originally scheduled for Jan. 20, was postponed to March — and then to this summer. The delays came after a drive shaft fell off a train during testing in January and technicians detected a glitch in a computer-control system in February.

"It's not going to open until it's reliable and able to provide an efficient and safe mode of transportation," said Cam Walker, president and chief executive of Transit Systems Management, the private company that will operate the monorail for the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail Co.

The drive shaft was fixed. But Walker said the software problem has proved more daunting: The control system is designed to keep a safe distance between trains running at up to 50 mph on the 3.9-mile track.

Once the system can handle seven trains at a time, it must run for 30 days before passenger service can begin. Up to five trains at a time were being tested so far, Walker said.

The delay is costing Canadian transportation company Bombardier Transportation and project partner Granite Construction of Watsonville, Calif., about $85,000 a day in construction penalties, Walker said.

Helene Gagnon, a spokeswoman for Bombardier, said her company was less concerned about when the system opens than with making sure it runs properly.

"It's important to take the time and make sure we get it right," she said.

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn approved funding for the rail system as a member of the state Board of Finance. A total of $644.3 million in tax-exempt bonds were sold — to be repaid over 40 years with money made on fares and advertising.

In Seattle, a 14-mile monorail line expected to run between Ballard and West Seattle by 2009 is projected to have a final cost of at least $1.6 billion and is being funded by more than two decades of taxes on residents' car tabs. Seattle Monorail Project officials say they expect to break ground on the project this fall.

Some Nevada lawmakers are concerned the state could be left holding the bag on the Las Vegas project.

"I still think you need more oversight when the state's bond rating is on the line, and there have obviously been problems," Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus said. But Guinn and other state officials say the monorail company's insurer, not the state, will pay if the project fails.

The company has sold ad space on four trains as moving billboards at $1 million each a year, and advertising rights at the Convention Center station to Nextel for $2 million annually.

With 35 million visitors a year to Las Vegas, Walker anticipates no trouble selling 19.1 million tickets a year with automated ticketing at seven stations and remote terminals at hotels.

Battista Locatelli, the singing owner of a tourist-oriented Italian restaurant beneath the Flamingo Road station, said he can hardly wait.

"It'll be wall-to-wall good for business," Locatelli said.

Trains are scheduled at stations every four to five minutes, and take 14 minutes to run from one end of the line to the other.

Williams, the New York nail-care consultant, simply hopes the system is running when she returns for another trade show in July.

"It'll be cool to be able to view the city from there," she said.

Seattle Times staff contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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