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PHOTOS: LAS VEGAS MONORAIL |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Mon May 15 23:18:58 2023 After failing to locate the infamous monorail in Brockway, PA I sat down and thought about where else grifters would be likely to sell Gadgetgahn transit systems. Of course the answer was obvious and I immediately booked a trip to Las Vegas, NV. Now I had been to Vegas twice before, but a variety of circumstances had prevented me from really exploring the local rail transit space. However this time would be different with both the time and opportunity to see what the monorail hype was all about. You can view all the photos here ( mirror ) before or after reading further.Due to some quirks in flight pricing my trip began at the Greenbelt Metro Station en-route to DCA(irport). The first leg of my trip was via WMATA 3k car #3108 that recently had its carpets removed in favor of a more stain friendly surface.  Due to 8-car trains, I couldn't get a good exterior photo at Greenbelt, but here is one at College Park waiting on a lineup through a single tracking zone.  Crossing the New Long Bridge, which unlike the Old Long Bridge, does not open.  DC Metro integration with DCA is fantastic with the station connecting directly to a TSA checkpoint.  Caught sight of the new Potomac Yards station and development shortly after takeoff.  Fast forward to Texas where my flight crosses above the DART Orange just outside the perimeter fence at DFW.  Arriving at one of the Las Vegas Harry Reid Airport D gates meant a mandatory trip to Terminal 1 via the airport's peoplemover system. Due to the influence of the Taxi Lobby, service from the airport to The Strip is a minimum two seat bus ride, connecting through an out of the way transportation center. Of course the Airport TVM was broken.  in the 1950's and 60's the Welcome to Las Vegas sign was practically the first thing a Southern Californian would encounter along US Highway 91 after departing Barstow. Today the sign site 8 miles from the current Las Vegas outskirts. For this trip I also chose to stay in the Tropicana resort as it was one of the oldest and one of the most likely to face demolition in the near future.   I was hoping to catch some action on the former Southern Pacific Cima Sub at TROPICANA AVE interlocking, but there didn't seem to be much moving on a Sunday afternoon. This was the former route of Amtrak's Desert Wind up through the mid-1990's. Several years ago the line was re-signaled and the old relay house has been converted into low income housing.   At first glance this little guy might look like a monorail, but it actually runs on two I-beams and is therefore a tram, specifically The Mandalay Bay Tram. I had no idea this even existed, but was apparently built by the MGM Mirage group to connect their properties on the south strip including, from north to south, the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Although it does not directly service the flagship MGM Grand, the Excalibur North station is across the Tropicana Ave intersection and connected via elevated walkways.   Propelled by a cable system, the uncrewed trams have seen significant weathering by the desert environment and no longer provide for quality photos.  The Excalibur North station is also across from the New York New York resort, whose pathetic simulation of the city is downright offensive.   Well there's nothing on Earth like a genuine, bona-fide, electrified 4-car monorail. The Las Vegas Monorail was built in 1994, runs parallel to the famous Las Vegas Strip and contrary to rumors that this was an early transportation scheme sent here by Elon Musk, it was originally conceived as a shuttle between MGM Grand and Bally's using two ex-Disney World monorail trains each on their own dedicated beams similar to the Seattle Monorail. In 2002 it was expanded northwards to the Sahara resort with 4 additional intermediate stations for a grand total of 7. Plans to extend the Monorail to the airport and downtown Vegas were scuttled due to poor ridership and lobbying from the Taxi industry. Below we see Car #3 at the MGM Grand terminal.  Rolling stock consists of 8, Mark VI monorails built by Bombardier. These are an evolution of the Mark IV monorail designed by Walt Disney Engineering for the Disney World Monorail system. Prior to expansion there were fears about the Monorail generating an unacceptable amount of noise due to their close proximity to the resorts, but in practice they glide softly with only a hum. The cars are numbered 1 through 8 and here we see car #7 just north of the MGM Grand terminal.  Single ride fares of $5.50 and day passes at $13.50 are significantly higher than the normal RTD bus fares, including the premium one running on The Strip. (I believe that even these are lower than in the past). When conceived the the Las Vegas Monorail was seen as a premium travel option compared to the Strip bus and was priced in reference to cabs or car services. Unfortunately due to the block or more walk off the strip and less than frequent service, most visitors decided to save money by walking and ridership was well below expectations. I did notice that before the official start of service the faregates were open and one could just walk up to the platform for a free first ride.   The service is fully automated with platform doors like an airport people mover with advertised headways of 4-8 minutes, however when I was there it seemed that the headways were quite a bit longer. As the stations are also unattended the project created relatively few cushy jobs, despite the claimed from the project develpper. Here is car #7 relaying to the tail track south of the MGM Grand terminal.  Unlike the WDW trains, the Las Vegas Monorail Mark VI's only have 4 segments instead of six with a single door for each segment. Because of the location of the propulsion tires there is no passage between cars. I assure you that however large the following photos make the car look, it is in fact quite small compared to a standard rail transit vehicle.   Despite the automation and unlike the WDW monorails there is no front or rear view, just a cab bulkhead so here is a side view video covering the northbound trip between Ballys and The Sahara. Beam crossovers were provided at each terminal and two additional intermediate locations near the Westgate Resort and the Las Vegas Sphere. Below we can see Car #7 diverging at the Sahara terminal crossover followed by the beam switch normaling just prior to Car #6's arrival, after which they immediately reverse again.  There is a common misconception that Monorails cannot handle sharp curves, but as you can see here near the Las Vegas Sphere crossover and the previous full line side view video, the tracks can in fact bend.  Here we see a little bit of the running gear of Car #8 as it approached the MGM terminal.  Although the Las Vegas Monorail tried hard to stand out, its off-strip placement and lack of Airport access doomed it to near irrelevancy. Fortunately this was the only transportation related folly that the people of Las Vegas ever embarked upon. I'll leave you all with this shot of Southwest's Missouri tribute 737 I caught at the Las Vegas harry Reid airport. 
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| (1620315) | |
Re: PHOTOS: LAS VEGAS MONORAIL |
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Posted by Sand Box John on Tue May 16 07:56:23 2023, in response to PHOTOS: LAS VEGAS MONORAIL, posted by Jersey Mike on Mon May 15 23:18:58 2023. Crossing the New Long Bridge, which unlike the Old Long Bridge, does not open.The bridge that carries L Route Yellow line across the Potomac River is the Charles R. Fenwick Memorial Bridge. Fenwick was instrumental in the creation of the WMATA compact. John in the sand box of Maryland's eastern shore. |
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| (1620320) | |
Re: PHOTOS: LAS VEGAS MONORAIL |
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Posted by Orange Blossom Special on Tue May 16 09:24:21 2023, in response to PHOTOS: LAS VEGAS MONORAIL, posted by Jersey Mike on Mon May 15 23:18:58 2023. Where's the monorail? Lots of hotels and planes. I guess we need 3 more sub-forums for you. |
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