{"id":3273,"date":"2010-05-24T15:04:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T23:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=3273"},"modified":"2010-05-24T15:13:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T23:13:08","slug":"x-train-derailed-wynn-trumps-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/x-train-derailed-wynn-trumps-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"X Train derailed; Wynn trumps Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may already be time to stick a fork in the so-called X Train<\/strong>, which would use existing rail lines to carry gamblers from Los Angeles<\/strong> to Las Vegas<\/strong>. According to The Associated Press<\/strong>, X Train is being sued by an adversary that says it had the idea first, even if it’s farther down the alphabet. Would-be rival Z-Train<\/strong> proposes “to target upscale passengers by providing gourmet meals, art exhibits, book signings, fashion shows, among other things. Tickets would cost about the same as airline tickets<\/em>,” writes the AP’s Daisy Nguyen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Z-Train flack Bruce Richardson<\/strong> doesn’t appear to have gotten the message that there’s a recession on, sneering at X Train’s target market as “a customer looking for a coach seat and a beer.” Hey, that’s a pretty good chunk of the Vegas market, too, bub (to say nothing of the customer base that it needs to shore up).<\/p>\n

X Train’s problems don’t end at intellectual-property issues. Union Pacific<\/strong> denies that it has given anyone priority access to its track lines (undermining both companies’ promise of a 5.5-hour ride) or even held serious discussions to that effect. The railroad also vetoed on-train gambling, central to X Train’s sales pitch. Already, the latter’s pledge of 90 minutes’ gambling time from the Nevada border to arrival in Las Vegas was looking pretty sketchy — unless the train slowed to a crawl somewhere out in the desert. Now that issue is entirely moot. If the X Train was counting on gambling lucre to make it pencil out, I’d say the project is as good as dead.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two-bagger for Wynn<\/strong>. Although much ink was spilled last week when Wynn Las Vegas<\/strong> had to bump a pair of customers to Trump International<\/strong>, I doubt Wynn execs are crying into their beer. For one thing, it’s not a bad thing for either the resort’s image or its stock price to have it get around that the place is crowded to the brim and then some.<\/p>\n

For another, by sending the discomfited guests to Trump International for a night, it subtly plants the image of Trump as a hotel that’s reduced to taking Steve Wynn<\/strong>‘s overflow. Wynn and Donald Trump<\/strong> claim to have buried the hatchet but they still manage to get their licks in. Score this round for Wynn.<\/p>\n

Speaking of feuds<\/strong>, the brother-in-law to Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta<\/strong>, Golden Gaming<\/strong> CEO Blake Sartini<\/strong> has lured PR man Justin McVay<\/strong> away from the Golden Nugget<\/strong>. The latter is owned by cousin Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>, who’s reputed to run the joint with an iron fist, and it’s an open secret that no love is lost between the Vegas and Galveston<\/strong> branches of the Fertitta family. Vegas 1, Galveston 0.<\/p>\n

Easy come, easy go<\/strong>. The leveraging of Columbia Sussex<\/strong> by CEO William J. Yung III<\/strong> continues to haunt the company. In order to pay off a note that’s due in July, ColSux is selling 14 hotels for an aggregate $518 million — or $37 million per hotel. Unfortunately, the Westin Casuarina<\/strong> off the Strip is not slated to be one of the castoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may already be time to stick a fork in the so-called X Train, which would use existing rail lines to carry gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. According to The Associated Press, X Train is being sued by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,15,42,51,97,57,32,9,129,19,100,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3276,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions\/3276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}