Las Vegas Monorail Finally Ready To Open

doormat writes "The Las Vegas monorail is finally set to open to the public on July 15th! The project has had some problems - it was originally scheduled to open in March. The first part of the monorail, which uses Bombardier M-VI train vehicles, 'a derivative of the famous Walt Disney World Mark VI trains', is 4 miles long and connects several casinos on the east side of the Las Vegas Strip (see map, QT video), as well as the Las Vegas Convention Center (Home to CES, NAB, Networld+Interop and what was Comdex). Future phases seek to expand the monorail to downtown to the North, the west side of the strip, and eventually the University and the airport (which the taxicab and limo groups fight tooth and nail). I swear it's the strip's only choice... throw up your hands and raise your voice! Monorail, Monorail, Monorail! Mono... D'oh!"

Comments

Does it take you OUT of Las Vegas?

[kaltkalt]

If not, why bother? The only vehicles in Vegas I'm interested in getting in are ones leaving that hellhole as soon as freakin' possible. Yes, I hate that city.

That being said, I was just there (for the 4th time in 5 years... yeah I know) a month ago and the new monorail looked like it would sure beat walking down the strip in the 110 degree heat.

Re:Yipee!!!!!

[l810c]

$654 Million for 4 miles of track. $3 per ride. This is no solution to our mass transit needs.

This is a solution for getting people to and from Casino's to lose more money as quick as possible.

Re:Yipee!!!!!

[l810c]

Do you even know how maglev works?

This is news for nerds, I'd rather read an article on just how maglev works(BTW, I do know a bit about it) rather than a 4 mile stretch of 30+ year old car on top of cement rail tech that's only purpose is to get people to Casino's a bit quicker.

The only thing mildly cool about this is it is driverless. But even that doesn't excite me much when you have grad students creating Volvo's that park themselves.

Re:i've always wondered...

[DNS-and-BIND]

Shouldn't you be using "square kilometeres"? I find that putting the extra "e" on the end of "meter" gives it that elitist Eurosnob touch that you were aiming for.

Building a continent-wide rail network in the USA would require massive property confiscation for track right-of-way. Environmentalists would block construction at every turn. Property owners would be outraged at a train running next to their property. Politicians would use the project for corruption and the costs would spiral up and up.

Texas tried to build a bullet train network in the 90s, and these exact issues surfaced. Also, what would you do once you got to Houston...walk? Take a $35 taxi ride, in a smelly taxi, assuming you can find another taxi once you arrive at your destination?

Re:Limousines and the free market

[DNS-and-BIND]

You take a bus to Airport Boulevard in Austin, and you'll be smack dab in the middle of the worst part of town.

If you had done even the smallest research, you would have found that the Number 11 bus connects to Orlando Int'l Airport. This took me all of 90 seconds to find. But, it's the free market's fault, right? Rah socialism.