Las Vegas Monorail ticket sales are expected to fall millions of dollars shy of projections for the year ahead.
Budget documents released by Monorail Co. in its pursuit of $110 million to finance a mile-long route extension along the Las Vegas Strip from the MGM Grand to the Shoppes at Mandalay Place show ticket sales totaling $21.4 million in 2018, the lowest in four years and $6.5 million less than was forecast in a ridership study commissioned in 2016, when ticket sales also failed to meet forecasts.
The Monorail Co. has struggled from the start and was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 2010.
Its latest struggles reflect additional competition from ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, said Monorail Co. spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman.
“While Monorail ridership hasn’t been affected as significantly as taxis and the bus system, there has still been an impact,” she wrote in an e-mail cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Monorail Co. President and CEO Curtis Myles has said increases in ticket sales are critical to the company’s ability to repay monies borrowed to cover the extension of the line, which the company claims will increase annual ridership by 2 million people within two years.
