Vegas Q&A: When Will The Monorail Open?

UPDATED: 10:50 a.m. EST November 24, 2003

Question: When will the Las Vegas Monorail open? From Everyone, everywhere

Answer: Almost every day I receive some variation on this question from readers.

There is no official opening date yet. All officials will say at this point is that it will be in the first quarter of 2004, which could mean anytime between Jan. 1 and March 31. But those in the know are fairly convinced that the project is going so well it will probably open sometime in January.

Interestingly, before the monorail can open the company responsible has to run full-schedule tests every day for 30 days without a hitch before it can open the line to passengers, hence the waffling on the exact opening date.

When it is open, it will run from the MGM Grand at the south end to the Sahara on the north, with stops in between at Bally's/Paris, the Flamingo, Imperial Palace/Harrah's, the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Las Vegas Hilton. The entire trip from one end to the other will take about 15 minutes.

There will be a total of nine separate trains running the route, each with four cars capable of carrying about 300 people (standing and sitting).

One way tickets will be $3, with a variety of discounted "combo plate" ticketing also available, including round-trip, 10 rides, and one- and three-day passes.

The monorail will operate daily from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m.

You can find out more and watch the progress of the project by visiting the official Web site at LVmonorail.com.

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