Las Vegas Monorail

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Las Vegas Monorail
A train arriving at the Sahara Las Vegas station
A train arriving at the Sahara Las Vegas station
Route length: 6.3 km
Power system : 750 V  =
Maximum slope : 60  ‰
Minimum radius : 60 m
Top speed: (75 km / h operation) 85 km / h

The Robert N. Broadbent Las Vegas Monorail is a public transportation system in Las Vegas in the US state of Nevada . The monorail (ger .: monorail ) is from the Las Vegas Monorail Company operated that for tax reasons as Foundation is registered. The state of Nevada has made no financial grants other than guarantees.

development

The Las Vegas Monorail was built by Bombardier Transportation and extends an existing, free connection between the MGM Grand Hotel and Bally's . Tourists, who have usually been on foot up to now, can cover a long distance of the strip effortlessly. The rails were built by California's Granite Corporation , one of the largest construction companies in the United States .

After many delays, the line was opened on July 15, 2004 after the first phase was completed and tested. There were numerous failures during the tests that delayed the start of the system by almost a year. Most of the problems were caused by falling parts from the rails of the elevated railway .

On September 8, 2004, problems with falling parts again led to a four-month shutdown until December 24, 2004.

The transport system to the Consumer Electronics Show passed the first stress test at major events in January 2005. A fault in the electronics system led to repairs on February 2, 2005. Due to a short circuit in a 9 meter long busbar , it had to be replaced. Operations resumed after 12 hours.

Plans to extend the route to the airport were considered on November 1, 2005 with the decision of the regional administration to conduct a feasibility study.

Project status

The vehicles (in phase 1 of the project) are currently running from the MGM Grand at the southern end of the strip , roughly parallel to the strip on the eastern side. The route runs next to the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino and the Las Vegas Convention Center - there are also stops - and ends behind the Sahara Las Vegas at the north end of the strip. A trip on the entire route (6.3 km) takes about 14 minutes.

The tracks run behind the major hotels and casinos to the east and a long block from the Strip. So you have to walk through one or more casinos to get to the strip. Due to this fact, the transport system was accepted rather slowly. The trains run daily from 7:00 am to 2:00 am (weekends until 3:00 pm). The tickets are sold from machines at the stations.

Las Vegas owes the support of the project in the population and the public administration to the namesake Robert N. Broadbent . Broadbent was Mayor of Boulder City , Clark County (Nevada) Administration , Senior Secretary of the US Department of the Interior, and Director of Las Vegas (McCarran) Airport . He died in 2003 a few months before the system was scheduled to start.

financing

Non-profit organizations are very rarely responsible for planning, financing, and operating passenger transport, as is the case with the Las Vegas Monorail. In addition to the income from loan repayments and operations, profits were expected with which the system could be expanded. During the planning, the Las Vegas administration was warned by experts that America would not have a public transportation system without public subsidies. According to Washington Post can subway in New York earn even 67% of operating costs through ticket sales and advertising, making it leader in the US.

The Las Vegas Monorail not only generates revenue from ticket sales, but also from sponsorship . A total of seven stations and nine trains can be designed in the image of the respective sponsor. The prices for sponsorship are in the millions. Hansens Beverage sponsored the first puff in the design of their energy drink Monster . Nextel Communications designed the largest station near the Las Vegas Convention Center in the corporate design. Since the merger with Sprint in late 2005, the station has been renamed from Nextel Central to Sprint Central .

Insolvency

In January 2010, the Monorail Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy on the grounds that it could not repay US $ 649 million (EUR 476 million) in government bonds . Operation is not currently affected.

Stations

Monorail approaching MGM Grand Station

Trains

Nine Bombardier MVI trains are used as vehicles , each consisting of four cars and controlled fully automatically.

extension

A 3.7 km extension to Fremont Street and downtown Las Vegas is planned for Phase 2 , with new stations at the Stratosphere Hotel , Charleston Boulevard , Bonneville Street and Fremont Street. Construction should start in 2005 and go into operation from 2008. However, since the expected public funding was not planned in the budget for 2004, the plan was put on hold. On January 27, 2005, the state government announced that no grants would be paid for the $ 400 million project.

It is therefore not yet certain whether phase 2 will ever be built. According to reports by the Associated Press (AP), Cam Walker of the transportation system management said there are no immediate plans to expand the route. It is also reported that the Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman , is looking for solutions with a cheaper train system or with modern buses.

A Phase 3 was planned to the route south from the MGM Grand Station to Las Vegas Airport to expand (McCarran). A feasibility study is currently being carried out to examine whether this is possible in the course of the planned expansion of the airport. Some hotel and casino operators on the Strip support this expansion and would like it to be the phase 2 expansion into downtown Las Vegas. The airport connection should be built from 2008 and completed in 2011 and financed through a private model.

However, this extension is currently still in the planning stage.

Trivia

The monorail should not be confused with the Cable Liner Shuttle which connects the Mandalay Bay Hotel with the Excalibur Hotel .

Web links

Commons : Las Vegas Monorail  Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Construction of phase 3 from 2008 ( memento of the original from March 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , reviewjournal.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reviewjournal.com