smitty195 Wrote:
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>
> The reason the monorail does not go down the
> middle of the Strip, or to the airport, or to
> downtown, is because of the Taxi Union. They
> fought and lobbied hard to make it not happen,
> because they knew it would reduce their income
> greatly. There are still plans to at least extend
> it to downtown, but I don't believe it will ever
> happen.


What is a "taxi union?" Is it an organization of drivers in the same way that there is a union for locomotive engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers? Or is it an organization of taxi companies?

My understanding from meeting with Las Vegas monorail staff was that alignment was to accommodate the desires of the casinos/hotels who did not want the monorail in front of their businesses.

>
> The monorail does get "packed" once in a blue
> moon. It's when there is a huge convention in
> town, and the conventioneers somehow end up on the
> monorail. If it weren't for that convention
> center, it would always be empty. But still, even
> with the convention center, it gets minimal use.
> That's why they are in bankruptcy. There was talk
> last month in the RJ to tear the whole thing down.
> That wouldn't surprise me at all.

The ridership data I've (I believe it was in the range of 30,000 - 36,000 average daily riders) was comparable to other new urban rail transit systems of similar length. This was several years ago (maybe 2006 - 2008). Even then, revenues from ridership were not sufficient to meet the financial requirements of the monorail company. If I recall correctly, there was also some technical problem with the monorail for a short period.