Las Vegas Transit
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Las Vegas Transit System Incorporated (Private) |
| Locale | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Transit type | Bus |
| Number of lines | 16 (1992) |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | 1965 |
| Ended operation | Dec 1992 (residential routes), Circa April 1993 (Strip route) |
| Operator(s) | Las Vegas Transit System Incorporated (Private) |
Las Vegas Transit, also known as Las Vegas Transit System (LVTS), was a former operator of a small private bus system in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
The Las Vegas Transit System took over from a previous company, Vegas Transit Lines (owned by Tanner Motor Tours of Nevada), in 1965. LVTS was owned by First Gray Line of Los Angeles, California. It was run out of the same yard as its sister operation, Las Vegas Gray Line Tours, on Industrial Rd near Charleston Blvd. Both outfits were owned by the Californians. Due to its lucrative Strip route, LVTS made significant profits for its owners. They were in business between 1965 and approximately 1993. They were bought out by the RTCSNV in early 1993 for $900,000. The Citizens Area Transit of RTCSNV officially started service in December 1992, and for a time, there were technically two public transit systems in Las Vegas until LVTS faded away. After CAT took over, LVTS only competed with CAT only on the busy and lucrative Route 6 "Strip" for several months before being bought out. The CAT system is now known as RTC Transit.
LVTS actually ran a frequent and efficient service for many years during the 1960s and 1970s when the city was small; their routes covered most of the city. At the time, they were considered a vast improvement over its predecessor, Vegas Transit Lines. In fact, they were praised as a self-sufficient bus system in the 1970s, as in an article written in Bus World Magazine in 1978. In about 1975, LVTS experimented with a "grid" route system replacing the former "hub and spoke" system. However, by all accounts, it was disastrous and ridership plummeted. They then went back to the old hub and spoke route system and enjoyed an increase in ridership, as detailed in the 1978 magazine article. In the late 1970s, the system consisted of 9 routes, 1-10, w/ Rte #2 missing. There were actually 3 24-hour routes: Route 3 Salt Lake Hwy, 4 Boulder Hwy, and 6 The Strip. Routes 3, 4, and 9 had 30-minute headways and #6 "Strip" had 15-minute headways. All routes at that time connected downtown for "an easy" transfer. Unfortunately, the routes were not synchronized to meet at the same time and sometimes, a rider may have to wait up to 45mins for transfer to the next bus. This situation occurred until the early 1980s, when the routes were all finally synchronized to arrive/depart at the same time, except for the frequently running route 6. As in later decades, the Strip route provided the money for the other money losing residential routes and allowed a profit for the small private transit company. It should be noted that being a successful private bus company is an exceptional feat, as by the 1960s, virtually all transit systems in the US had been taken over by municipal governments due to declining riderships and heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
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