RTC Happenings

[Perry]

A lot of activity in Sin City as we prepare for three fairly large events; The opening of the new Sunset Maintenance Facility to replace a small and antiquated Tompkins garage that is just west of the Strip behind some very expensive condos. Will be glad to get out of there. There will be a massive bus move to get everything down there in addition to a huge bus swap that myself and the other planner want to do. As we are planning not only to move some routes that currently come out of another yard to this one due to easier deadheads, we want to completely move vehicles around.

First, we would like the 30 New Flyer low floor artics to move up to Simmons and take the 40 NABI artics, 5 older New Flyer high floors, 27 NABI Hybrids and the 7 2001 New Flyer CNG's and a handful of double decks to Sunset. This sets our vehicle deployment perfectly to match the demand we want to do for October, plus with the ACE Gold Line and ACExpress-Centennial Hills route starting in January, along with a revamped Deuce on the Strip, we won't have to do anymore bus swaps until at least July when our new Central City Terminal opens, if at all.

Veolia is bellyaching a little bit since they don't want more routes to come out of a new garage, but it's the most efficient way for us to run our operations and if we kept a lot of the routes at Simmons, it would cost us a lot in platform time. While we'll take their concerns under advisement, essentially we call the shots, so they'll make due. It's better to have a soft start in October so that when we go full throttle into the new services for January, they will have gotten the bus out.

Also in July of next year our new Central City Terminal will open replacing the old, decrepit, city owned Downtown Transportation Center. We can't wait to get out of there and no more buses having to back up to get out of their bays like it's a Greyhound Station.

It's keeping us really busy, but it's a lot of fun. We've been having Veolia run the route timings for us for the Centennial Hills route because there are too many trips for a couple of us to do ourselves. The Gold Line and Deuce on the Strip will be great because they will allow you to pay before you board so you can just get on through any door. We'll have fare enforcement and we've been granted authority to levy fines. The MAX will then be called the ACE Blue Line and we'll up the fares to match the other ACE routes rather than charge the residential fare.

Other projects on the horizon are an ACE Green Line route along Boulder Highway and changing the shoulders on Sahara Ave. to a bus only lane to give the 204 a faster ride. We'll have off-board fare collection on there as well but just charge the regular fare as it won't be a full scale BRT route. I wanted to call it the Sahara EXpress, but the acronyms wouldn't go over too well. LOL It is Vegas after all!!

[Tritransit Area]

WOW, Perry, there sure is a lot going on out there!  Where is the new Central City Terminal located?  Is it near the DTC?  Also, it'll be great to have a place where buses can just pull in and out, rather than back out (yikes!).

Those ACE lines seems like they would be great as well.  Outside of the Proof of Payment, how will the Duece be different?

Geez, the transitscape down there sure is changing quite a bit since I last went down there! 

[Perry]

The CCITT will be about a mile south of the DTC at the intersection of Casino Center Blvd. and Bonneville Ave.  It's also where the transit department is going to be housed so I'll get to see all of the action as it's happening rather than hearing it anecdotally.  It will be nice to nip things in the bud as it's happening.  It's going to be a fairly state of the art facility too.

The routing of the Deuce is going to change.  Rather than run from Downtown to the South Strip Transfer Terminal, it's going to run from Palace Station near Sahara and I-15 to Mandalay Bay so that the route will truly be a Strip service. Between that and the ACE Gold Line, there will be very frequent and fast service along the corridor which is now absolutely painful to ride and watch.  It takes forever for people to board the thing and we lose a lot of potential passengers from just how long it takes to get on. 

It's changing quite a bit despite the poor economy.  We're fairly luck concerning the circumstances and we're setting ourselves up to have a lot in place when things do pick up.

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

And I'll bet the hotel owners of The Stardust & The New Frontier, as well as the owners of Wet n Wild are wishing they didnt close/blow-up their properities.

Ive heard that the hotel owners now, are starting to bend over backwards for the people who just wanna no-frills Vegas Vacation w/o the bells & whistles.

[Perry]

I wish we still had a Wet and Wild here.  If only I had the capital to do so, I'd definitely open up a waterpark.

The hotels are definitely lowering their rates to get people back here, offering more frills, even doing things for locals (go figure!!).  Even with the gambling, it still could be a nice place to take a vacation if you aren't into that.  Why not go to a nice hotel with a nice pool area and go to shows, eat at lots of great places and do other things?  It's no different than going anyplace else...you just have to see through the gambling part of it. 

[WES]

So Perry how are those CRAPBIs doing, still giving you guys problems?

[Perry]

Yeah, we're actually holding one bus hostage and not accepting it as a way to hold off on the final million dollar payment to NABI.  Coach 974 is just sitting there in the lot and from what I understand, until NABI can get some things worked out such as the dipsticks in the engine melting, then we'll be in business. Out of 17 major issues, they've worked out 3.......

[Tritransit Area]

The routing of the Deuce is going to change.  Rather than run from Downtown to the South Strip Transfer Terminal, it's going to run from Palace Station near Sahara and I-15 to Mandalay Bay so that the route will truly be a Strip service. Between that and the ACE Gold Line, there will be very frequent and fast service along the corridor which is now absolutely painful to ride and watch.  It takes forever for people to board the thing and we lose a lot of potential passengers from just how long it takes to get on. 

It's changing quite a bit despite the poor economy.  We're fairly luck concerning the circumstances and we're setting ourselves up to have a lot in place when things do pick up.

Oh dear, no more service to the SSTT?! 



Well, as disappointed as I may be if I go back there, at least the buses will be used a lot more efficiently.  There's no need for a dozen double deckers running all the way to the terminal.  Will the ACE replace the Deuce service, as well as the outlet service?

But it seems like you guys are really on top of the ridership trends.  The faster boarding of the Deuce will DEFINITELY make it a more attractive service - the dwell times were incredibly too long.  You might be able to cut off a lot of travel time and either run them more frequently or put the extra ones on other routes (which I imagine was the idea anyway).

Are you guys considering anything for the "Southern Strip"?  There wasn't much a few years ago when I went there, but I hear they were planning on doing major development down there. 

[Perry]

The ACE will run from the Premium Outlets to the north to South Strip Transfer Terminal to the south with a stop at the Las Vegas Outlet Center.  It's going to go through downtown as well and operate in a dedicated right of way along Grand Central Parkway and most of Casino Center Blvd. 

There isn't much going on south of South Point, where the 117 currently goes.  There is a new resort that opened up a few miles south of there but we're not going to run bus service there since there is a dead zone in the middle.  The sad thing is that resort has a shuttle that they offer to their guests that runs to the airport and to Fashion Show Mall, all places where we have great transit service to, but they won't let the employees use it.  Instead of expecting transit to do everything, these businesses need to put up a little bit and help out.  They make a profit, we don't.

Between the two services there will be about 7-8 minute service in the peak.  There really isn't a need for more frequent service than that otherwise they'd be more on top of each other than they are now!