[Grant]

Last week, the Clark County Commission approved a feasibility study that could be the first step toward extending the Las Vegas Monorail south to McCarran International Airport.

This in no way means that the line will ever actually be built, but the study will allow the monorail operators to try to prove their case that extending the tracks to the airport is possible and potentially profitable.

The study will try to determine where they could build stations and the elevated track, how many riders could use it and how much revenue it could generate, all of which would probably be taken with a big grain of salt since the existing monorail line has failed to reach the predicted passenger volume or dollars everyone said it would.

Even if they could convince commissioners that it's a good idea the next, and probably harder, step would be trying to raise the money to build it. Officials with the monorail say that it would be financed through bond sales, but the monorail company's bond rating is not very good after its disappointing first year in business.

Add in the pressures that could be brought to bear from the very powerful taxicab authority, which wouldn't want anything interfering with its airport revenue, and the only way I'd bet on this particular proposition is if I was betting against it.

But let's pretend everything actually works out. When would be the earliest you could catch a train from the airport to the Strip? Well, consider that the monorail would most like be integrated into the upcoming terminal 3 at McCarran and that the terminal is not scheduled to open until 2010.

Source: Vegas4Visitors