Las Vegas Monorail Gets Back on Track May 27

By Scott Roeben, on May 11 2021
2 min read 12 comments
Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Monorail reopens at 7:00 a.m. on May 27, 2021.

Yes, there is a Las Vegas Monorail. Your tone is duly noted.

Las Vegas Monorail
No, parts don’t fall off anymore. Rude.

The monorail was shut down on March 18, 2020 due to the pandemic. Let’s just say that every one of the two dozen people who use the monorail were devastated.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) purchased the struggling monorail in December 2020 for $24.26 million.

The monorail is expected to continue struggling, at least until it’s closed and dismantled 8-10 years from now. Our over/under is five years, but the LVCVA says 8-10 years, so we’ll just go with that.

The Las Vegas Monorail is 3.9 miles long, just to annoy OCD sufferers.

Las Vegas monorail
Disneyland may have a monorail, but do they have stripper poles? Thought so.

The monorail travels at speeds up to 50 miles per hour, and riders can travel the length of the resort corridor in about 15 minutes.

By “resort corridor,” of course, we mean “not the airport or downtown.” Thanks a bunch, taxi lobby!

The monorail has seven stations, but we’re only going to list six because the last one’s at a casino run by asshats.

googie MGM Grand
googie Bally’s/Paris
googie Flamingo/Caesars Palace
googie Harrah’s/The Linq
googie Las Vegas Convention Center
googie Westgate/Las Vegas Convention Center

Yes, the monorail’s days are numbered, so it’s a great time to hop onboard.

Why is the monorail doomed? Well, for one thing, replacing the custom train cars would cost about $200 million.

The purchase of the monorail by the LVCVA killed a noncompete agreement that prevented outside companies from building alternative transit systems on The Strip.

This opened the door to Elon Musk’s underground tunnel transportation system, the Vegas Loop. The first portion of the Loop has been completed at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the plan is to expand the system to downtown and the airport and all points in between.

Skepticism abounds about the tunnel project (map below), but one thing’s for certain, the monorail isn’t in the cards for the future of Las Vegas transportation.

Elon Musk Las Vegas map
Elon Musk’s tunnel transportation system project is so crazy, it just might, you know, be called crazy.

Upon reopening, the Las Vegas monorail will resume its previous hours of operation. Mondays, 7:00 a.m. to midnight; Tuesdays to Thursdays, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.; Fridays and Sundays, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.

Ticket prices are: Cheap.

Get tickets for the Las Vegas Monorail at LVMonorail.com, and join us in welcoming back an old friend.

Admit it, just like the monorail, you take your old friends for granted. Maybe it’s time to ride an old friend again, and just keep riding until you get off!

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