Las Vegas Monorail, USA

Bombardier Transportation signed a contract with the Las Vegas Monorail Company in 2000 to design and build a driverless, urban monorail transportation system east of the Las Vegas Boulevard in the heart of the resort corridor. The seven-station route formed an extension of the original 1.6km (one mile) monorail route that opened in 1993 between the MGM Grand and Bally’s hotels.

In spite of the city and the county's overwhelming need for improved mobility there were no fixed guideways, automated monorails or light rail urban transit systems until this monorail. Neither was there any tax money available to build one. The first leg of this urban transit system for Las Vegas was by far the most scrutinised project in the State's history, having withstood the State and County dissection in more than three years of public hearings and costly independent examinations. The $65m project was finally given the go-ahead in September 2000 and the completed 6.4km (four mile) line opened in 2004.

THE PROJECT

Driverless urban transit systems are expensive to build, and taxpayers usually do not want to raise their taxes to build them. To overcome this problem Las Vegas resorts, led by Park Place Entertainment and MGM Mirage, raised finance without using any tax money.

To accomplish this, the sponsoring resorts invested a total of $30m in this project, and the Las Vegas Monorail Team, led by Bombardier and Granite Construction, are investing an additional $18.5m, for a total private sector cash investment of $48.5m. The rest of the required capital was financed by tax-exempt non-recourse revenue bonds tied to farebox and advertising revenue.

The system was built by Bombardier, and the same company was awarded a maintenance and operation contract for five years, which may be extended by another two terms.

Since opening in 2004, the monorail – which was the first driverless public system in the world – has had a dramatic effect in reducing the number of cars on the road. It is estimated to have eliminated 4.4 million car trips and 135 tons of carbon monoxide from the atmosphere each year.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The new Las Vegas Monorail links seven stations over 6.4km (4 miles) of elevated dual-monorail guideway, integrating the two existing stations and re-equipping the 1.6km guideway of the former MGM Grand-Bally's monorail line. It provides a direct service to eight major resort properties and the Las Vegas convention centre.

Five new stations were built and two existing monorail stations were rebuilt for the new line. Bombardier's consortium partner, Granite's design-build contract included the design and construction of the five new stations and 3 miles of dual-elevated guideway, integrating two existing stations along the route. The new alignment runs east of the Las Vegas strip between the MGM Grand and the Sahara. The contract also called for the re-equipping of 1 mile of existing guideway between the MGM and Bally's. Construction started in 2000 and was complete and ready for testing in late 2003.

In October 2003 Bombardier and Granite were awarded a further $336.6m contract to extend the monorail – by now known as the 'Robert N Broadbent Las Vegas Monorail' – by 3.6km to Las Vegas' downtown gaming district. However, following difficulties and low ridership on the first 6.4km section, the Government withdrew its pledge of $170m from the project.

ROLLING STOCK

The 36-car monorail fleet, constructed by Bombardier, is operated in nine four-car trains. Trains travel at up to 50mph, taking around 14 minutes from end to end.

Bombardier Transportation's Transit Systems unit, based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was responsible for overall system design, vehicles, systems engineering and integration, supply of train control, communications and power supply systems, automatic fare collection, the operations and maintenance facility, and testing and commissioning. The monorail fleet was built at the Bombardier Transportation manufacturing facility, also located in Kingston.

Many attractive features, including increased interior height and wider outside sliding doors have been incorporated into the fleet of nine four-car trains. Beneath the space-age styling of the monorail's strong, lightweight composite shells are standard transit components found on many other Bombardier transit vehicles.

If any future extensions to the system are approved, up to 20 additional cars could be required to meet service demands.

SIGNALLING / COMMUNICATIONS

Bombardier, as a member of a consortium, is responsible for the electrical and mechanical systems of the fully automated monorail line, including 36 M-VI monorail cars. This contract is valued at $200m. Bombardier will operate the system for an initial five years with an option for a further ten years. The five-year operations and maintenance contract assigned to Bombardier carries a value of $56m. The total capital cost of the project is valued at $354m. The design, build and equip contract calls for Bombardier and consortium partner Granite Construction Company to be responsible for the turnkey design, construction, and system-wide elements of the complete monorail system.

THE FUTURE

The monorail was expected to carry 20 million passengers in its first year, but this target was never met. In 2006, the system was carrying around 32,000 passengers per day, which equates to 11 million per year.

Technical difficulties that forced the closure of the system between September and December 2004 did the monorail no favours and also played a part in the Government withdrawing funding from the proposed extension. Lower than expected passenger numbers also contributed to this withdrawal.

In 2006, planning began on a revision to a proposed extension to McCarren International Airport. It is likely to link major convention centres and the airport with the hotels that are served by the existing line.