Mono Failing to Spread
February 13, 2006 | 7:01
am
The Las Vegas monorail continues to fail, fail, fail. Last month saw its lowest ridership ever as well as its bond falling ever further into junk status. Monorail officials warn that unless this changes they won't be able to float more bonds to expand the monorail. Duh. Yet, earlier on the Buffet, I reported, on how the monorail is depending on this expansion to become successful. How could this problem not have been anticipated? Any guesses?
Duh is right! I was in Vegas a couple of weeks ago (for the first time) and loved it. But the monorail? Please - most importantly, it's in the wrong spot. It's away from the action, the strip, the front of the hotels.
If it isn't ON THE STRIP people forget about it and use their feet, cabs, cars, or they stay local (e.g., one or two intersections N and S of their hotels.
It never once crossed my mind to use the monorail. In fact I never saw the thing. I took some rail service from the Luxor to Madalay Bay (I think) but that's because I saw it and knew it was free. The monorail? Good lord - I studied urban planning in university - did any of the monorail builders? Probably not - but that's the fault of the city...
Good luck. Moth ball it now - or build one in the centre of the road down the strip - and charge for volume ridership ($1.00/1 trip) not frequency or real costs.
Loved Vegas, all of it - and trust me the monorail wasn't part of it. I saw more Joshua trees and parkas and uni-cycles than monorails. Mono rail? Mono Oh NO!!
Posted by: Doug | February 13, 2006 at 08:17 PM