Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, one of the LVCVA board members, was the dissenting vote. She says a pandemic isn’t the time to be spending money, especially on a monorail system manufactured by a company that is no longer in business. No companies currently build the train cars that ride on the rails, and experts say the system could need to be dismantled within fewer than 10 years.<\/p>\n
We have $1.8 billion of debt, no conventions booked, no room tax income, and we have over 335,000 unemployed people, some close to being homeless,”<\/strong> Goodman stated during the remote conference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n“This [monorail] was originally supposed to go from the airport to the Strip, then downtown. It should be a private entity and not the LVCVA,” the mayor added.<\/p>\n
LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said there are no plans to build new monorail stations or extend the system. But acquiring it provides options, including extending the underground Boring network, or repurposing the monorail with new vehicles. The latter, he says, could cost $200 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n“We have a different mission than someone in the private sector who would invest in the monorail in order to make a profit,” Hill explained. “There’s a real cost to this community for the congestion that’s out there.<\/p>\n
“This system, when we’re not in a pandemic, would be responsible for carrying five million show attendees and tourists [annually]. To not have the monorail run for the next eight or 10 years, that would be bad for the city. With us owning it, it provides a transition,” the CEO added.<\/p>\n