Monorail

Did you know that there's a train in downtown Las Vegas? It's not what you might think. It's a monorail.

The Las Vegas Monorail is owned and maintained by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The route is just under 4 miles long and runs from the Sahara hotel on the north end of the Strip to the MGM Grand on the south. As you might expect, it has a stop at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Here are some interesting tidbits from the Wikipedia entry.

• It opened in 1995 and ran between the MGM Grand and Bally's hotels.
• The two original trains each ran back and forth on their own track. No switching.
• The same two trains had previously operated on the Walt Disney World monorail.
• It was closed in 2002 for extension north to the Sahara, and south to a new depot where additional trains could be switched in and out.
• Revenue is generated from ticketed passengers and corporate sponsors.
• The trains and signaling systems were developed by Bombardier Transportation, a Canadian-German company since acquired by the French company, Alstom.
• It was patterned after the Walt Disney World monorail because the technology was well-proven.

We rode the monorail along its entire length and back on the only day we visited a casino (more on that in the next post). Tickets were $5 per person per ride – well worth the unique experience.

I don't think I got very good photos of the monorail. I guess I was too busy enjoying the ride. The cover image is an abstract of the track from below. Here is a picture of one train from inside a station ...

... and another of the front of our train as it rounds a curve.