I just read through all these posts and I'm ready for a good cry!
Las Vegas, of all cities, can't even get a streetcar or light rail down its famed Las Vegas Strip to the downtown Fremont Street district, let alone steer it to the nearby Airport.
I've been puzzled about this in all the 16 years I've lived here! Can't exactly put my finger on the reasons why.
Some say, the casino operators would be against it, as they want their patrons to spend all their time and $ in their mega resorts. Build a rail system and it would be too easy for them to go elsewhere, to their competitors.
Our powerful taxi unions in this city are not to be taken lightly, as light rail could very well bring an end to many of their jobs. When the monorail (that kiddy train!) was built, and there were wheels mysteriously falling off it, I knew a retired taxi driver who told me: That's no mystery! The taxi drivers are sabotaging the system!
And if there's truth to that, imagine how they'd sabotage our light rail system!!! A mysterious, unsolvable bombing?
I do pray that most cities in this country get light rail, get accustomed to it, fly into a city and there's a rail car waiting for you at the Airport, to speed you away to your destination.
And then? Within time, with all the 3-4 million visitors that come to Las Vegas, they will start asking questions, embarrassing us:
"What's this anyway!!! No rail line from the Airport to the Strip? And this is suppose to be such a modern, futuristic city!!! You mean I'm stuck taking taxi's everywhere!!!"
