Will the Monorail Ever Be Extended to the Airport and Downtown?

Now that the Las Vegas Convention Center owns and operates the monorail, do you think it will ever be extended to the airport and downtown?

The chances of any further investment in the Las Vegas Monorail are slim to none.

One of the reasons that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority picked up the Monorail (for a song, we might add; they bought it for $24.3 million in 2020, when it cost $650 million to build and that was nearly 20 years ago) was to invalidate the Monorail's non-compete clause that precluded "alternative transit" systems on the Strip.

The LVCVA was already enamored of Elon Musk's subterranean people mover by then and certainly knew of the grand plan to dig the Las Vegas Loop under the Strip, so buying up the Monorail's contract allowed those projects to move forward without legal repercussions.

In addition, the LVCVA's purchase agreement called for setting aside $11 million to dismantle the Monorail at some unspecified future point. When it assumed ownership, the LVCVA indicated that it planned to operate the line until 2028 or 2030. That's around the time that the Monorail is actually scheduled to become obsolete. Its Bombardier Mark VI tram, for which the Monorail was custom-designed, has been out of production for years and isn't coming back anytime soon.

In other words, the current cars can't be replaced, never mind extending the route to the airport or downtown, or even to Mandalay Bay.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

Have a question that hasn't been answered? Email us with your suggestion.

Missed a Question of the Day?

Have a Question?

Tomorrow's Question

Has Clark County ever considered legalizing prostitution?

Comments

Dave_Miller_DJTB Feb-12-2022

Bombardier Mark VI

While I have no love for the monorail, why is there an issue with the Bombardier cars?

I mean, the LV Monorail Co has been buying them used from Disney. Certainly Disney has found a way around the lack of supply.

Bob Feb-12-2022

Tesla

why not combine it with the Tesla Taxi Tunnels?  I'm sure that with Elon Musks Engeniers, they could design a Vehicle that could run through the tunnels and on the Rail?  and while not real convenient the Monorail does have the East side of the strip covered and would be able to be connected to the Venetian Expo center and the new MSG Globe thingy!

tgabrielli Feb-12-2022

Musk's People Mover

I am not a fan of Musk's people mover. It has very limited capacity; there are better solutions. (Like, NYC's subway system?) The monorail is great; convenient, quick, cheap. Too bad it isn't as popular as it should have been. The mistake was putting it in the rear of the casinos. Should have been on the strip, front and center.

thebeachbum Feb-12-2022

Is It Enough

Is $11M enough to tear it down?  And, how soon will they start?

steve crouse Feb-12-2022

Tunnel

Musk is a smart guy.
He's got some smart folks working for him.
He is not burdened by suffocating bureaucracies the way governments are.
He will come up with a way for his tunnels to operate efficiently and be user friendly.
It may take four or more tunnels running parallel to make it happen from a true safety, and easy to use perspective, but it will happen.
Count on it.

gaattc2001 Feb-12-2022

I'll be Devil's Advocate and predict...

that "Elon Musk's subterranean people mover" will be a bigger boondoggle than the monorail ever was. 
Like a lot of other public works projects, both were important mostly for the employment and economic stimulus they provided during construction. Whether they ever carried a passenger or earned a dime was a secondary consideration.

Randall Ward Feb-12-2022

monorail

it peaked when they added the Star Trek themed cars, after they closed the STE there was no reason to go to Westgate.  Sahara being a mess pretty much killed it except for convention s

AL Feb-12-2022

$$$ don't make sense

Could someone explain how it is even possible that the monorail cost $650 million to build, but it could be purchased much later for only $24.3 million?  That makes no sense at all.  I wouldn't have made any sense even if the purchase were made later in the same year, but virtually everything that gets sold much later on costs a lot more.  How is it even possible that the 2-decade-later purchase price would only be about 1/27 of the building cost?

AyeCarambaPoker Feb-12-2022

@AL

A purchaser buying an asset is essentially buying an income stream - if the projected income in 1 year is expected to be $1m (I've made that number up btw) then they will use that when coming up with a price to buy that asset. 

The cost of building that income stream is irrelevant (known as sunken costs) and the only factors in working out the purchase price are future income plus the value of the physical asset. Given that the monorail is likely to be decommissioned the tangible value might be very low or even negative (think of a scenario where a building is riddled with asbestos and the clean up costs far exceed the value of the asset)

Infrastructure projects are often publicly funded because of these factors as a private company wouldn't be able to work this way.

Question of the Day - 12 February 2022

Comments