Introducing The Strip's New Monorail

The long-awaited Vegas monorail takes off. Will it fly?

1 minute read

July 25, 2004, 5:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


The Robert C. Broadbent Las Vegas Monorail stands as a four-mile rebuke to the doubters. Its four-mile elevated track will glide an estimated 50,000 customers a day between the MGM Grand hotel-casino, at the southern end of the Strip, and the Sahara at the northern end. Trip time: about 14 minutes for a journey that, in a car on a weekend night, is best measured in geological cycles. Each four-car train - there are nine, up to seven of which will be in use at any given time - can haul more than 200 people, 70 of them sitting. From the route's six stops, riders can access eight major Strip resorts, nine convention centers and untold slot machines... The trains will subtract an estimated 4.4 million car trips a year from already maxed-out local streets.

Thanks to Peter Slatin

Thursday, July 15, 2004 in The Slatin Report

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