[Bruff]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Actually McCarran is rather easily accessed. Of large airports it is far and away a good one.
First thing you got to do is offset the 3 or 4 deaths a year from the locals driving themselves to the new airport. You may get the tourists mostly on the train but that is virtually impossible to do with locals. So you got 300 or 400 million miles of interstate driving to deal with. That will also likely require another lane on I15.
Then you got the 20 or 25 billion dollar cost. The estimate a few years ago for the secondary airport was around 7 billion. With time, a full blown replacement airport and a high speed rail you will easily triple that.
Then you got the remaining bonds on McCarran. Yes you can sell the land but only a 100 acres so would be considered as potential strip property. Clark County could easily build parcels of a similar size to the east of the strip for well less than 10% of the cost of strip properties...that sets value for the vast majority of McCarran.

Easily accessed? I personally find it a merry go round that when you're trying to catch a flight, ain't merry at all. It's a nightmare. Ask anyone that's done it the first time. They always miss and have to go back, sometimes several times.

On deaths from locals driving to the new airport. Given the difficulty accessing McCarran, my guess is that the death and mayhem would decrease - significantly.

Cost. $20 or $25 Billion? Seems high. DIA cost $4.8 billion and employed 11,000 workers in its construction and its website claims that "approximately 35,000 people work in many different industries and professions" there. Careers | Denver International Airport
As of 2015, DIA was the 6th busiest in the United States by passenger traffic with over 54 million passengers (12 million ore than LAS). It was voted Best Airport in North America by readers of Business Traveler Magazine six years in a row (2005–2010)[5] and was named "America's Best Run Airport" by Time Magazine in 2002. It is the only airport in the United States to have implemented an ISO 14001-certified environmental management system covering the entire airport.

Only 100 acres would be considered Strip property? How do you figure that? Google suggests that the Tropicana to I-215 and back to Mandala Bay would give frontage of about 4 miles. Wanna take a guess on what that would be worth?

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by Bruff

Easily accessed? I personally find it a merry go round that when you're trying to catch a flight, ain't merry at all. It's a nightmare. Ask anyone that's done it the first time. They always miss and have to go back, sometimes several times.

On deaths from locals driving to the new airport. Given the difficulty accessing McCarran, my guess is that the death and mayhem would decrease - significantly.

Cost. $20 or $25 Billion? Seems high. DIA cost $4.8 billion and employed 11,000 workers in its construction and its website claims that "approximately 35,000 people work in many different industries and professions" there. Careers | Denver International Airport
As of 2015, DIA was the 6th busiest in the United States by passenger traffic with over 54 million passengers (12 million ore than LAS). It was voted Best Airport in North America by readers of Business Traveler Magazine six years in a row (2005–2010)[5] and was named "America's Best Run Airport" by Time Magazine in 2002. It is the only airport in the United States to have implemented an ISO 14001-certified environmental management system covering the entire airport.

Only 100 acres would be considered Strip property? How do you figure that? Google suggests that the Tropicana to I-215 and back to Mandala Bay would give frontage of about 4 miles. Wanna take a guess on what that would be worth?

That the newcomer may be confused is true. You have to read the signs. Any skilled traveler or local will have no problems. Those who can't read will. But it is still not remotely deadly...at worst dented fenders.

The 10 year ago cost of Invanapah as a secondary airport was estimated at 7 billion 8 or 10 years ago. You google - it is easy to find. You are doubling or tripling the size of the project and doing it 10 years later. Easy 20 billion. Then you add a 30 mile state of the art high speed rail.

LV Blvd between Tropicana and Sunset is virtually all in private hands. There is a 1000 feet or so south of Mandalay Bay that is part of the airport. The rest is privately held.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Bruff

OK, don't compare McCarran to Hong Kong or Tokyo. Compare it to Stapleton. Keeping it where it is not just actively silly, it's actively stupid.

Maybe a more interesting comparison is LAX. Even SJC.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by BBMW

The XpressWest thing independently is pretty useless. But integrate it with the CA state system, and it makes much more sense. Downtown SF and central LA directly to Vegas would get a lot of traffic.

High speed rail is mature technology. The others your talking about aren't. Let the get some prototypes running and shaken down first.

You're making a pretty big assumption that the CA system will exist within our lifetimes -- or the lifetimes of our children. Even the extreme left-wing editorial staff at the Mercury News poo-poos the whole thing.


Mercury News editorial: High-speed rail still a boondoggle, even if supposedly coming to San Jose - San Jose Mercury News

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

LV Blvd between Tropicana and Sunset is virtually all in private hands. There is a 1000 feet or so south of Mandalay Bay that is part of the airport. The rest is privately held.

What I see south of the M Bay is a golf course on the west and except for the airport and the Harley Davidson shack, virtually nothing on the east. So what if it's privately held? Removing the threat called "McCarran" would change it from wasteland to prime opportunity land.

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

You're making a pretty big assumption that the CA system will exist within our lifetimes -- or the lifetimes of our children.

I agree with your assumption that the CA high speed rail system will never exist in our lifetimes. Add to it the recently approved Nevada boondoggle, XpressWest.
But the thing is, there are other high speed technologies that work better, cost a whole lot less, are much safer, and will take you from door-to-door.

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Maybe a more interesting comparison is LAX. Even SJC.

Why? They're hemmed in by "people places and things". DIA was with Stapleton, but now that it cut the surly bonds, no more.

[BBMW]

Which ones that are actually in use and proven fit all your criteria stated below

Originally Posted by Bruff

I agree with your assumption that the CA high speed rail system will never exist in our lifetimes. Add to it the recently approved Nevada boondoggle, XpressWest.
But the thing is, there are other high speed technologies that work better, cost a whole lot less, are much safer, and will take you from door-to-door.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Bruff

I agree with your assumption that the CA high speed rail system will never exist in our lifetimes. Add to it the recently approved Nevada boondoggle, XpressWest.
But the thing is, there are other high speed technologies that work better, cost a whole lot less, are much safer, and will take you from door-to-door.

I see your point about visitors... but it doesn't hold true for locals. No public transportation will ever get me from my door to the airport & back. Nowadays, I usually just rent a car from Hertz Local Edition one-way to the airport. It is less expensive than parking fees at the airport.

Prior to relocating here, I used to travel frequently from SJC or SFO. I've always been amazed at how convenient LAS is relative to SJC & SFO. Moreover, everything at LAS just seemed to work (at least by comparison to SJC & SFO).

[wwu123]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I see your point about visitors... but it doesn't hold true for locals. No public transportation will ever get me from my door to the airport & back. Nowadays, I usually just rent a car from Hertz Local Edition one-way to the airport. It is less expensive than parking fees at the airport.

Prior to relocating here, I used to travel frequently from SJC or SFO. I've always been amazed at how convenient LAS is relative to SJC & SFO. Moreover, everything at LAS just seemed to work (at least by comparison to SJC & SFO).

Funny you mention, i live much nearer and more convenient to SJC, but mostly fly out of SFO due to most major flights and connections having migrated away from SJC the last decade.

Looking 20-30 years out, if there is both continued tourist growth and local growth building out the southwest portion of LV/Henderson, a lot of the arguments here for Ivanpah seem to make a lot of sense. I could see McCarran possibly being retained as a "smaller" local airport like Haneda or San Jose. Or to me very analogous Taipei airport literally in center of town, vs Taoyuan airport way the heck out there.

Ivanpah would be a wash for my parents who are on the southern end of Anthem anyway; would be the same time driving as McCarran. But it seems like it would somewhat suck for the residents in the northern end of Vegas though, as it's tripling the airport distance if not more - though it's not much different than others have to go to the big airport in other major cities, including SFO for me.