Vegas Visitors to Zip Along Strip

The analogy of the Strip being a Disneyland for adults will ring all the more true as construction begins here Thursday on a four-mile-long monorail.

When completed in 2 1/2 years, the privately funded, $650-million project will whisk passengers between Tropicana Avenue on the south end of the Strip and Sahara Avenue on the north in just 15 minutes--with six casino stops along the way and another at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Depending on the time of day, that trip can take an hour or more by car, cab or bus.

And within two years, regional transportation planners hope to begin construction of the monorail’s extension north to downtown’s Fremont Street, at a cost of about $300 million in federal funds. A publicly funded monorail ultimately may link the Strip monorail to McCarran International Airport.

Officials say the system--with its $2.50 fares and ability to accommodate up to 400 people on four-car trains every four minutes--will pay for itself in no time.

And $2.50 is a small price to pay, officials say, to avoid sitting in Strip traffic--or trudging along the sidewalks on 110-degree summer days .

“Our biggest concern is that, once it’s up and running, we still won’t have enough cars to accommodate” the rider demand, said Bob Broadbent, chairman of Transit Systems Management, which will oversee the monorail’s daily operations.

While the exact fare structure has yet to be determined--including the possibility of day passes and other discounts--the monorail will pay for itself with an estimated 20 million paying customers annually, predicted Greg Cary, lead underwriter for Solomon Smith Barney. “It’s possible we might even be able to lower the fare,” Cary said. The nonprofit system was funded with tax-free revenue bonds issued last fall.

Developing technology may even allow passengers at the ticket machines to charge their fares by swiping their hotel room keys, with the cost showing up later as a room charge, Cary said.

The Las Vegas Strip attracts about 35 million visitors a year, each of whom stays three days on average.

The use of a monorail system to help ease Strip congestion and the movement of tourists has been discussed for 30 years.

In 1995, the MGM Grand and Bally’s casinos constructed a $20-million monorail to link their competing properties. That ride, available for free, has been popular among gamblers and hailed by the casinos for increasing foot traffic.

To capitalize on that monorail, the Las Vegas Monorail Co. was created early last year with the blessing of the state Legislature. It purchased the MGM Grand-Bally’s monorail and will upgrade it and extend it along the east side of the Strip, with new stations at the Flamingo and behind the abutting Harrah’s and Imperial Palace casinos. The elevated monorail then will turn off the Strip and stop at the convention center and the Las Vegas Hilton before returning to the Strip at the Sahara hotel-casino.

Each of the participating casinos is paying $5 million to construct its own, themed monorail station. Sahara President Craig Hodgkins said it is money well spent.

“Anything that can bring foot traffic to this end of the Strip is a good thing,” he said. “Surveys tell us that our guests will visit three or four other casinos while they’re here. This will make it that much easier for them.”

The Venetian, however, has boycotted the project. “We couldn’t identify any way it would benefit our property,” said spokesman Andy Abboud. Among the concerns, he said, was that the monorail could bleed more customers away from the Venetian and its adjoining convention center than it would bring in.

Along the west side of the Strip, private casino monorails already connect the Mirage and Treasure Island, the Bellagio and Monte Carlo, and the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

John Haycock, chairman of Las Vegas Monorail, said the new system will help maintain the Strip’s attraction to tourists.

“Common sense tells you that, with traffic congestion, it may be more trouble than it’s worth to some people to come here,” he said. “Part of the attraction of a resort destination goes away if you can’t easily and comfortably go from one resort to another.”