Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

People mover, Monorail to coexist on the north Strip

Monorail Anniversary

Sam Morris

A train leaves the Convention Center station during the Las Vegas Monorail’s 10th anniversary celebration Saturday, July 26, 2014.

In Las Vegas, it’s often the shiny new thing that grabs most of the attention.

As plans proceed for a possible expansion of the underground people mover project at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a more dated transit system — the Las Vegas Monorail — has taken a back seat.

Click to enlarge photo

This undated conceptual drawing provided Elon Musk's The Boring Company shows a high-occupancy Autonomous Electric Vehicle (AEV) that would run in a tunnel between exhibition halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center proposed for Las Vegas.

A privately owned public transportation system, the Monorail is an elevated train that runs along a 3.9-mile route adjacent to the Strip.

The Monorail has been out of service since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic, and no restart date has been announced.

Meanwhile, conversations about the future of Strip transportation have centered lately on the people mover project.

On June 9, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill spoke at a board meeting about plans to expand the people mover project.

The people mover is a $52.5 million underground transit system to shuttle people around the Convention Center campus in Tesla electric vehicles. Each shuttle — there would be up to 62 in service at any one time — would transport up to 16 people.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is building the project.

Wynn Las Vegas and the under-construction Resorts World Las Vegas have also announced plans to link to the system from their properties on the north Strip.

Hill said the underground line could also expand to other resorts along the Strip and to Allegiant Stadium, just west of Mandalay Bay.

“It’s more than two (resorts) that want to do this,” Hill said. “These are the first two that make sense.”

The people mover expansion still needs regulatory approval from Clark County.

The Monorail Company has a noncompete clause for the area it operations within the resort corridor. But the agreement exempts transit systems that carry passengers from point-to-point without a stop, Hill said.

Hill said the LVCVA is in talks with Monorail officials about how to “best preserve the Monorail’s operation,” which he called an important transportation link.

As for how an expanded people mover system could impact ridership on the Monorail, Ingrid Reisman, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Las Vegas Monorail Company, said she would need more details about the proposals.

“We’ve always been in support of the people mover project at (the Convention Center) campus,” Reisman said. “That central station is across a parking lot from our Monorail station (at the Convention Center). We’ve always been supportive of multi-modal solutions because the Monorail can’t serve everyone for every transportation need, just as every other transportation mode can’t either.”

Last year, the Monorail carried just under 5 million passengers, a figure that will drop considerably this year because of the pandemic. 

Reisman said she’s hopeful that the Monorail will be running again sometime this summer, but she can’t guarantee it.

With no ridership fees coming in and its sponsorship deals on pause, there’s no money to be made now. It doesn’t help that the nonprofit company doesn’t qualify for government-backed coronavirus paycheck protection or stimulus loans.

In October, the Monorail Company announced it had funding for a new station — it has seven now — to service the Sands Expo Center, Venetian and the under-construction MSG Sphere entertainment complex.

It also previously announced plans to expand further south on the Strip with a new station near Mandalay Bay.

“We still believe the Sands station and the Mandalay Bay station make sense, both for the company and from a mobility on the Strip standpoint,” Reisman said. “It also makes sense for the community, because we carry so many people and reduce emissions and congestion. What does that time frame look like? I don’t know. We need to focus now on keeping the company sustainable and getting operations back up and running. It’s anybody’s guess right now.”

Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft, recently toured the people mover tunnel system at the convention center, which is expected to be finished by early next year.

“I’m really impressed with (the Boring Company’s) ability to quickly and efficiently move visitors and residents around the convention center campus,” Naft said.

“I see the potential for expansion throughout the Strip corridor and then — from what I understand the long-term vision to be — into the residential corridor,” he said. “I think there’s a real opportunity there to move people in a safe way that’s both efficient and good for our environment.”

Hill said earlier this month that LVCVA officials have talked to some downtown Las Vegas resort owners about the possibility of bringing a people mover route there, though nothing has been finalized.

There’s little question the people mover concept can coexist with other transportation options, Hill said.

“We are not trying to monopolize any transportation solution,” Hill said. “Any transportation solution in Las Vegas is going to be multi-level. Uber, Lyft, the taxis, the Monorail, they all play a role.”

“People have seen the congestion that’s out there. We need to solve that problem, and that takes all modes to do that,” Hill said.

Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, also a member of the LVCVA board of directors, said there is room for the people mover and the Monorail.

“I think they can make for a good marriage. I’d love to see (the Monorail) go farther. I’d love to be able to get off a plane, collect my bags, and hop on the Monorail and have it take me right to the Sands or Mandalay Bay. How beautiful would that be?”