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Two monorail trains smashed into each other at Walt Disney World in Orlando early Sunday morning, killing one conductor and injuring the other. A Walt Disney World spokesman said the crash happened at about 2 a.m. Sunday on the monorail's last run of the day. The trains were carrying only five passengers and two employees, none of whom were hurt. "Two trains collided at the ticket and transportation center. One driver on one train is dead and the other driver from the second train was taken to the hospital," said Bo Jones of the Reedy Creek Fire Department. The crash...

Nobody wants to ride it, and it has almost a half billion in debt. The Las Vegas Monorail looking for a bailout because almost nobody's riding its rail. There's enough riders to cover the day to day expenses of operating the thing, but not enough to pay off the massive debt payments which total $451 million. Fitch downgraded the company's bonds to C rating, which means "default of some kind appears imminent or inevitable." So, like any good business in today's economic environment, the company is "looking into possible federal loans or other sources of public funding," according to KVBC....

THE BELEAGUERED LAS VEGAS MONORAIL IS PERILOUSLY CLOSE to earning my respect. It doesn't seem to matter what calamity befalls the troubled train, its management team just keeps chugging along. Pieces and parts fall off and land on the sidewalk? No problem. Brakes fail and doors don't close? What's the big deal? Ridership plunges to ridiculous new lows? Happy days are just around the corner. Maybe they have a requirement that anyone who gets hired by the monorail must pass a personality test in which the glass is always

The Las Vegas Monorail passes by the three towers of the MGM Signature Towers condominium construction project as it arrives at the MGM Grand station in this photo from Oct. 17. Ridership levels have been low, resulting in heavy losses for the Las Vegas Monorail Co. Photo by John Gurzinski. A big convention helped fuel a slight ridership gain on the Las Vegas Monorail in November, but the system still lagged far behind ridership volumes from the same time last year. Last month, 19,218 people a day rode the monorail, an increase of 2.7 percent from October but a drop...

The Las Vegas Monorail has struggled to cultivate a customer base. Projected to move more than 50,000 people a day, it has instead attracted a fraction of what was expected -- something closer to 20,000. That, of course, has led to financial concerns. The private Las Vegas Monorail Corp. needs about $61 million a year to cover operating costs and debt service. But the monorail is currently generating only $39 million annually. Advertisement Monorail executives have tinkered with the fare structure, with little success. Clearly, some other course of action is necessary to stave off collapse. Some critics have argued...

Bond rating slips into 'junk' status because of low revenues, ridership The Las Vegas Monorail passes by three towers under construction as it arrives at the MGM Grand station on Tuesday. Fitch Ratings, a New York-based credit rating firm, has dropped the monorail's bond rating to "CCC," calling the system's outlook "negative" amid weakened ridership and flat revenues. Default is a looming danger for the Las Vegas Monorail after low fares failed to draw enough riders and a fare hike chased off too many passengers, according to a bleak financial analysis released Tuesday. The assessment by Fitch Ratings, a New...

The Las Vegas Monorail is wrapping up the summer months with ridership in a deep freeze, failing to top 20,000 daily riders on a regular basis in recent months. The rapid transit line averaged just 18,963 daily riders in June, July and August of this year. That was a drop of 38 percent from the same months in 2005, when 30,735 people rode the system every day, according to monorail statistics. And ridership in the past three months was 12 percent less than in March, April and May of this year, when the monorail averaged 21,581 daily riders.

Monorail strategy coming up short A little bit of MAGIC doesn't appear to be the cure to a prolonged ridership slump for the Las Vegas Monorail, system officials said Tuesday. Officials did not expect many new riders to come from the Men's Apparel Guild in California show, known as MAGIC, despite the estimated 105,000 attendees expected at the Las Vegas Convention Center through Thursday. MAGIC is one of the biggest annual conventions in Southern Nevada, and the Convention Center is central stop on the 4-mile monorail line.

MARION, Indiana (AP) -- A semitrailer crashed through a median on Interstate 69 and collided with a college van Wednesday night, killing five people, police said. The collision peeled open the side of the van, and several occupants were ejected, said state police Sgt. Rodger Popplewell. The semi driver was among five injured. About 2 miles of interstate in Grant County, midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, were closed.

Double-decker bus takes riders up and down Strip An old-fashioned bus could be sucking riders away from the high-tech Las Vegas Monorail, which carried far fewer riders but made about as much money last month as in March 2005, according to monorail data released Thursday. Citizens Area Transit's "The Deuce" double-decker bus service, which launched on the Strip earlier this year, is believed to have played a role in the monorail drawing just 21,204 daily passengers last month. That's well short of the 32,324 people who took trains every day in March 2005. "We're estimating a few thousand (people) who...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mid-South gamblers may be able to knock back a few more drinks in Tunica, and then take the train home. The Mississippi Legislature Monday approved a transportation bill that includes $500,000 for a feasibility study of a monorail network that would link casinos to one another as well as connect to the Tunica Airport and Southaven. The light rail line could even reach into Shelby County, connecting to the proposed Memphis rail system that is to link Midtown with Memphis International Airport. The bill is now on the desk of Mississippi...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Construction work will begin on the Palm Monorail at The Palm Jumeirah following a joint ground-breaking ceremony held by Nakheel and Japanese contractors the Marubeni Corporation. The ceremony, held at the site of Atlantis, The Palm, was attended by His Highness Sheikh Hasher Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum; Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman, Nakheel; His Excellency Hajime Tsujimoto, Ambassador of Japan; and Shigeki Kuwahara, Executive Deputy President, Marubeni Corporation. The Palm Monorail, which will take three years to complete, will serve as an efficient transit system between the Gateway Station at...

Travel Web site users to get ticket vouchers to boost sagging ridership Customers of a travel Web site will be plied with free Las Vegas Monorail tickets as part of a new marketing partnership with the struggling rapid transit line that will be unveiled today. Starting later this month, vegas.com will offer free vouchers for one-way monorail trips to the roughly 10,000 people a day who buy travel products through that site or other sites it runs, including lasvegas.com and espanol.vegas.com. The vouchers can then be redeemed for a monorail pass at booths that will be set up at monorail...

Bleak outlook puts bond sale at risk The Las Vegas Monorail had its worst ridership month ever in January, sinking the troubled $650 million rapid transit line's bond rating further into "junk" status Friday. Ridership slid to just 18,187 daily riders last month -- roughly half of what it was in July -- while Fitch Rating, a credit rating firm, dropped the monorail's rating to "BB," two notches into "junk" territory. That poor showing imperils plans to extend the monorail to McCarran International Airport, which would rely on a multimillion-dollar bond sale to cover the cost.

For a minute early Thursday morning, the Las Vegas Monorail could have passed for the New York subway's green No. 4 train dumping off riders at Yankee Stadium. The cars were packed -- not 16 people filling the cars' available seats, but honest to goodness strap hangers. Riders numbered in the hundreds, not the teens, as they exited at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the Consumer Electronics Show

CARSON CITY -- The Las Vegas Monorail will continue to be exempt from paying sales taxes following an 8-0 vote Friday by the state Tax Commission, although one commissioner took shots at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibson for the amount of money he made when he managed the company. Commissioner George Kelesis questioned why Transit Systems Management received $36 million during the five years it managed the monorail company and why Gibson was paid $200,000 a year as a director. "Here is the full-time mayor of Henderson, who is a full-time lawyer and who is earning $200,000 attending one meeting...

The world's largest automaker is poised to become the Las Vegas Monorail's newest sponsor. General Motors Corp. has agreed to the framework of a deal that would give the monorail a much-needed cash infusion while allowing GM to set up a public demonstration track outside the rapid transit line's Sahara Hotel stop, Las Vegas Monorail President and CEO Curtis Myles said Thursday.

The track design that led to last week's Monorail accident was partly a result of Westlake Center developers not wanting to give up retail space in the new mall, say planners involved in the decision 20 years ago. Saturday's accident occurred when the Monorail's only two trains sideswiped each other at the narrowest point on the tracks that wasn't designed to accommodate both at the same time -- the consequence of a design that planners said was their only option given the limitations imposed on them. The official cause of the accident was human error -- mistakes made by one...

Human error caused the Seattle Monorail accident. The inbound driver failed to yield to the other train at the point where the tracks are too close together for passing, authorities said Wednesday. "The inbound driver was an experienced individual who made some very unfortunate and costly errors." said Stuart Rolfe, a Seattle Monorail Services partner, in a statement. Seattle police reported Wednesday that drug tests on both drivers by an independent lab showed "illegal substances were not a factor in the accident." The Monorail's only two cars sideswiped each other on a curve near the downtown station Saturday evening, and...

SEATTLE -- In the first effort of its kind, a giant hydraulic crane and a powerful towtruck were used to separate the two Seattle Monorail trains that got stuck when they sideswiped each other on a narrow section of the elevated tracks. The basic strategy worked as planned but the trains could not be moved as far as officials hoped before the work was halted early Tuesday, and officials said it would take at least one more night of work to get the damaged trains to the system's maintenance shop for repairs. "We're very happy with the progress as it's...