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The Vegas Loop could tunnel its way into different parts of the Las Vegas Valley

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A Tesla electric vehicle heads from the Las Vegas Convention Center toward Resorts World through the Vegas Loop.
Photo: Wade Vandervort

It’s 111 degrees outside, and guests inside Resorts World’s District shopping area trickle toward the hotel’s Vegas Loop station. “On a day like today,” one man tells an attendant at the top of the escalator, “I’ll pay for a ride to just get across the street.”

The hotel’s guests and visitors can now bypass Las Vegas Boulevard’s crosswalk, and instead take an underground Tesla ride to get across the street to the Convention Center. Resorts World’s station recently became the first to open outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop.

In 2019, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority invested $52 million to construct the Convention Center’s tunnels and stations. In doing so, it introduced a prototype of the express tunnel transportation system designed by Elon Musk’s the Boring Company. Boring President Steve Davis has called it the “largest subsurface construction project in the country.”

It’s a notch on the Boring Company’s belt, to develop its first citywide transportation system. But what does it mean for local transit options? As proposed, the Vegas Loop will service Harry Reid International Airport, Allegiant Stadium, various Strip resorts and the Downtown area.

Since opening to the public in June 2021, the Convention Center Loop has transported thousands of conventioneers through 0.8 miles of tunnel via battery-powered Teslas. At a June 15 Las Vegas City Council meeting, Davis told council members the Convention Center Loop was capable of transporting 3,000 passengers per hour.

Unlike the stations at the Convention Center (which offer transport free of charge to conventiongoers) passengers at the Resorts World station scan a QR code to access a link where they can purchase ride fare—currently $3 for a day pass. For now, the hotel’s station is open only on days when there are conventions across the street, but operating hours could expand, Resorts World President Scott Sibella tells the Weekly.

Permits to complete the loop between the Convention Center and Resorts World have been submitted, says Steve Hill, LVCVA president and CEO. Boring has already secured permits to dig to Westgate and Encore, and an application to connect to Allegiant Stadium and the Tropicana hotel is in the works, he adds.

When the Boring Company presented expansion plans to Clark County leaders in 2021, there were discussions about connecting the Vegas Loop to the airport and UNLV. The Weekly requested further details on both, but the Boring Company had not responded at press time.

UNLV spokesperson Keyonna Summers says the UNLV station hasn’t been ruled out. “There’s no new information to share at this time, though ... we’re always open to finding new and innovative opportunities for our community and visitors to access UNLV,” Summers said in a statement.

The Vegas Loop plans call for a 34-mile tunnel network with 56 stations along with “future service extensions.” The Boring Company’s website also notes the possibility of connecting to LA.

Downtown, the Boring Company has secured approval of a 50-year non-exclusive agreement to use the City of Las Vegas’ right-of-way to construct and operate a Loop that is “100% privately funded,” says Mike Janssen, executive director of infrastructure for the city. The south end of the Downtown portion of the Vegas Loop is planned just north of the intersection of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, where the Boulevard intersects with Main Street and St. Louis Avenue, near the Gateway Arches the city installed in 2020.

“If you’re coming north in the tunnel, when you cross Sahara on Las Vegas Boulevard, there will be two tunnels, northbound and southbound, and it will remain a two-tunnel system right up until you approach the intersection of St. Louis, Main and Las Vegas Boulevard,” Janssen says.

From that point, one tunnel will head northbound to Ogden Avenue, pass the Fremont Street Experience and Circa Las Vegas and then turn south on Main Street, passing the Plaza before returning to the Las Vegas Boulevard/Main/St. Louis intersection, rejoining the two-way tunnel that connects Clark County’s jurisdiction.

The city plans on more than five Vegas Loop stations and more than five miles of tunnel within its jurisdiction. And it will be possible to add more, if there’s demand. The Boring Company would just have to get the city’s approval and obtain the necessary permits, Janssen says.

City council members expressed interest in Vegas Loop connections to the Medical District, to Area15 and as far west as Ward 2, which includes parts of the Summerlin neighborhood.

Janssen says the city’s plan includes a three-tier revenue funding model for the construction of “civic stations” to serve areas like the Arts District, where property owners wouldn’t be able to afford the multimillion-dollar price tag to construct a station. In June, Davis quoted costs of $1.5 million to construct a small surface station and $4 million to construct a station at a small hotel. More extravagant stations could require $20 million.

“Unlike the stretch between Sahara and Tropicana in the county, where there’s a lot of major hotels, a lot of big property owners that could fund their own station … we have a large gap … between the [Strat] until you get down to Fremont Street,” Janssen says. “A lot of these are what we call ‘civic destinations’ where one big property owner just doesn’t exist.”

The city’s three-tier funding model is similar to Clark County’s two-tier model, which collects quarterly franchise fees at 0.5% or 5% of revenue, dependent on whether Boring’s quarterly revenue exceeds $17.5 million. But Janssen claims the city’s funding model has the potential to generate $1.35 million more per year than the county. “They’re paying the full 5% from $10 million per quarter to $17.5 million,” he says.

Aside from the funding models and types of contracts (Clark County has a franchise agreement with the Boring Company), the city’s agreement with Boring is nearly identical to the county’s, Janssen says. All forthcoming tunnels in Clark County and the City of Las Vegas will be paid for and operated by the Boring Company, which will collect ride fares. Construction costs of passenger stations are assumed by the respective property owners.

Tunneling of Downtown stations could be completed in under six months, Davis told city council members in June. He estimated a $12 fare and a nine-minute trip to ride the Loop from Fremont Street to the airport.

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Shannon Miller

Shannon Miller joined Las Vegas Weekly in early 2022 as a staff writer. Since 2016, she has gathered a smorgasbord ...

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