{"id":6091,"date":"2011-03-24T10:51:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T18:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6091"},"modified":"2023-03-06T06:34:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:34:01","slug":"from-the-mailbag-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/from-the-mailbag-15\/","title":{"rendered":"From the mailbag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s “Question of the Day<\/a>” about the future of the Sahara Hotel & Casino<\/strong>‘s monorail stop (and, by extension, the future of the Las Vegas Monorail<\/strong> itself) provoked a long and thoughtful response from an S&G<\/em> reader. (By the way, don’t forget to take our poll on the Sahara<\/a>.) The fate of the bankrupt Monorail …<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"“… also points out an issue with any rail-based form of mass transportation — its enormous inflexibility, especially compared with bus-based options. As population centers and resort destinations change over time, rail-based transportation is unable to adapt to the change in demand for its services.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Consider this: instead of some (extremely-expensive) pie-in-the-sky high-speed rail system linking a single-point terminus in the SoCal region (central Los Angeles<\/strong>, Anaheim<\/strong>, LAX, Victorville<\/strong>, ???) to a single-point terminus in the Vegas area (Downtown, South Strip, North Strip, McCarran, ???) that would be a decade or more in the future before actually operating at a construction cost of multi billions of dollars, the same number of daily passengers could be moved via high-end hybrid commuter buses for a literal FRACTION of the cost — and start operating later this year.<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
“Additionally, instead of just one inconvenient (for the majority of potential passengers) terminus location in the massive SoCal region, there could be at least 5-10 locations throughout the area, ranging from Thousand Oaks<\/strong> through central LA and down to Orange County<\/strong> (and even San Diego<\/strong>).<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
“Want to add Phoenix<\/strong>? Instead of spending BILLIONS to add a rail leg down to the Valley of the Sun, for the cost of just a few of these hybrid commuter buses service to Phoenix is added — done. With the savings of billions of dollars in construction costs, the operating costs of these buses could be subsidized (if needed) from just a fraction of that savings.<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
\"\"“Imagine this: \u00a0you live in Thousand Oaks (on the northern edge of the SoCal region), or Anaheim, or San Diego, or even Phoenix. For a subsidized cost of $20 each way, from a convenient location close to your house you can be driven in comfort to Vegas in a brand-new high-end vehicle and be dropped off at multiple locations along the Strip (and even Downtown). That service could be up and running later this year — with just a small sliver of the federal dollars being thrown at the ‘high-speed’ rail option (which is more and more looking like it might not be that ‘high-speed’ after all — even after costing billions).<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
\"\"“As a driver to Vegas when visiting, I for one would seriously consider such an option (especially at that low of cost). And getting 50 or so passengers per hybrid-bus out of their cars and into single vehicles would HAVE to help with the congestion that everyone complains about getting into and out-of Vegas on the weekends, as well as with helping the environment.<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
“And linking back to the Question of the Day: \u00a0so what if an old resort closes, or a popular new resort opens, or a new population center pops up in SoCal — these pick-up and drop-off locations can be easily modified as needed by market-force demands.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
“Ah, forget it, this plan is really more of a ‘Shelbyville<\/strong>‘ sort of plan.. :-)”<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
Just make those bus drivers take sobriety tests — that’s all I ask.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Elsewhere ..<\/strong>. Out east, readers of American Casino Guide<\/strong> (bookmark that site!) have their say on Cannery Casino Resorts<\/strong>‘ sister property in Pennsylvania<\/strong>, the racino known as The Meadows<\/strong>. Their verdict? A resounding “meh”<\/a> — 2.5 out of a possible five stars.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s “Question of the Day” about the future of the Sahara Hotel & Casino‘s monorail stop (and, by extension, the future of the Las Vegas Monorail itself) provoked a long and thoughtful response from an S&G reader. (By the way, … 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":[48,109,34,73,28,51,95,111,54,9,19,100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091"}],"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=6091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32429,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091\/revisions\/32429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}