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The Las Vegas Monorail is a monorail mass transit system located adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It connects several large casinos in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester, and does not enter the City of Las Vegas. It is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Monorail Company. Total annual ridership is currently about 4.2 million, down from a peak of 7.9 million in 2007. The monorail is a registered not-for-profit corporation, allowed under Nevada law since the monorail provides a public service. The State of Nevada assisted in bond financing, but no public money was used in construction; citizens may eventually have to pay taxes that fund the monorail.〔''See'' AMBAC Assurance Reply filed in In re Las Vegas Monorail Company, 429 B.R. 770 (2010) (Docket No. 169)〕 == History == The Las Vegas Monorail project was built by Bombardier Transportation upon an existing free monorail that ran between the MGM Grand and Bally's, closing a long gap in the Strip that tourists usually had to travel on foot. During testing and commissioning, the monorail suffered several malfunctions that delayed the start of passenger service for almost a year. The most serious of these problems related to parts falling from the monorail to the ground under the tracks.〔 After many delays, the finished Las Vegas Monorail opened to the public on July 15, 2004 with the completion and testing of "Phase 1." On September 8, 2004, more problems with falling parts led to the closing of the monorail for nearly four months. It reopened on December 24, 2004. A number of repairs were made to the monorail cars during this shutdown. Each time the monorail system required major engineering changes, it underwent a lengthy "commissioning" process to confirm the effectiveness and safety of the repairs. Officials reported that each day the monorail was down cost the system approximately $85,000, and that over $8.3 million was lost as a result of this one shutdown. Transit Systems Management officials cited the successful handling of crowds during the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show as proof that the system can handle a major convention. On February 2, 2005, the monorail system was shut down due to problems with the electrical system. Reportedly, a short circuit required replacement of a section of the power rail. The system reopened about 12 hours later. In July 2005, a record was set for ridership for the monorail, with over one million passengers. BankWest debuted a red "MoneyRail" branded train, and joined Nextel Communications (now a part of Sprint Nextel Corporation), Hansens Beverage, and Paramount Studios (with a Star Trek themed train) as corporate sponsors. On July 8, 2005, Transit Systems Management announced that it would shut down, turning over its responsibilities to the Las Vegas Monorail Company, the system operator. Curtis Myles, a former deputy general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, became President of the Las Vegas Monorail Company. He assumed his duties on July 18, 2005. Expansion plans took a step forward on November 1, 2005, when the County Commission approved a study into the feasibility of an airport extension. On June 6, 2006, the Las Vegas Monorail Corporation announced that monorail revenues rose nearly 16 percent from the previous year, to $3,250,565 in April 2006. Likewise, ridership had also increased, from 563,823 riders in January 2006 to 704,527 in April 2006. New ticket distribution and marketing efforts had been implemented to continue the trend, including a ticket brokerage program that provided convention attendees with monorail tickets in advance and a national public relations program. On January 13, 2010, the Las Vegas Monorail filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. The filing will not affect system operations and will have no impact on the monorail’s hours of operation or service to its customers. On March 11, 2011, the Sahara Hotel and Casino announced that it would close its doors May 16, 2011. Closure of the Sahara has been cited as one of the significant reasons for ridership dropping in 2012. In 2014, a new hotel casino, the SLS Las Vegas took over the Sahara, and ridership would increase from 2012 levels. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Las Vegas Monorail」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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