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I have ridden the monorail - It is comforteable and fast and in combination with CAT and MAX gives you more options for getting around without paying the extremely high cost of taxis.
vpFae <vpFae@Cox.net> wrote: http://www.lvrj.com/news/8428067.html
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
pesach kremen wrote:
I have ridden the monorail - It is comforteable and fast and in
combination with CAT and MAX gives you more options for getting
around without paying the extremely high cost of taxis.
I'm a big fan of mass transit. It's been a staple of our life during
our 18 yrs in Philly.
However, I was disappointed when we didn't have much use for the
monorail and took it just once, as a novelty. Even with one day pass
fares, a shared taxi between 2 or 3 people is worth the added expense
in terms of convenience and time saving. (The reduction of the pass
fee was little more than a death rattle.)
As far as the conventioneers who were a target consumer, a good number
are on expense accounts and have little interest in economy over
convenience.
- Harry
"However, I was disappointed when we didn't have much use for the
monorail and took it just once, as a novelty. Even with one day pass
fares, a shared taxi between 2 or 3 people is worth the added expense
in terms of convenience and time saving. (The reduction of the pass
fee was little more than a death rattle.)
As far as the conventioneers who were a target consumer, a good number
are on expense accounts and have little interest in economy over
convenience."
Two real good points here especially about the business travelers. The
few times I went there on business I would never use it because every
expense is paid for.
When the one day pass was $15 it was just stupid. If you're in a group
of 4 people it just doesn't make financial sense to use it if you're
traveling up and down the Strip.
Time-savings-wise it also has a very limited target audience. Many of
the trips on the monorail, once you factor in walking to the station,
just dont save that much time vs taking a cab or even walking it. I
remember the first time I wanted to take the monorail I was at NYNY
and said hey the monorail opened lets take it from MGM to Paris. Well
holy cow it must have taken 20 minutes to walk just to the MGM station
let alone waiting for the train and then walking to Paris from the
Ballys station. In most every trip since we've walked it and it takes
that much time. A cab is $8-$10 if you dont want to walk.
This to me is a classic business example of a great front end idea
with horrid planning and horrid execution. I understand they were
somewhat limited in terms of where they could build - IE they couldnt
start a new track down the center of the Strip - but its too bad its
come to this.
Another example of a poor idea IMO is the airport extension. This
*sounds* like a great idea but when you think about the cost of it you
have to think they are going to need to charge big bucks for a ticket
to recoup the cost. Lets say its not huge but lets say its $15 to get
from the Airport to anywhere on the Strip. Who in their right mind is
going to pay $15 times 4 people when a cab itself is $15 TOTAL. To say
nothing of the fact you are going to have to drag all your luggage to
wherever they build the station and then drag it through the casino.
This idea just makes zero sense to me simply from a cost/revenue
perspective.