Sahara Express Bus Rapid Transit line means more jobs for Las Vegas

Last Thursday, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff joined Nevada Senator Harry Reid and others to break ground on the Sahara Express Bus Rapid Transit line in Las Vegas.

Thanks to $34.4 million in grants from the Recovery Act, Las Vegas will be able to build a new dedicated bus lane to improve access along one of its busiest employment corridors.

Because of its innovative elements, the Sahara Express was one of 51 transportation projects selected in February 2010 to receive grants from the Recovery Act’s TIGER program, a national competition for transportation solutions that promise significant economic and environmental benefits for a metropolitan area, a region, or the nation.

The Sahara Express will provide a timely and important boost to the Sahara Avenue corridor, much of which was hit hard by the recession and is now ripe for redevelopment.  The project brings upward of 500 jobs, putting people in the community back to work building a stronger future right in their own backyards.

The project is exactly the kind of American innovation that President Obama spoke about last month in his State of the Union address, urging Americans to win the future by out-building, out-innovating, and out-educating the rest of our nation’s global economic competitors.

The Sahara Express bus rapid transit line includes 12 miles of dedicated lanes along Sahara Avenue, one of the city’s major east-west thoroughfares.  Motorists, pedestrians, and transit riders along the route will now benefit from upgraded traffic signals and new sidewalks. And, since the dedicated bus lane does not take away from existing traffic lanes, traffic capacity along the corridor will be largely unaffected.

The project further bolsters the Regional Transportation Commission’s efforts to develop a comprehensive bus rapid transit (BRT) network by connecting directly to two other BRT routes, the Strip & Downtown Express bus rapid transit service,  Deuce on the Strip double-decker buses and the Las Vegas Monorail..

This exciting new bus line will take people from wherever they live in the Valley to downtown Las Vegas and the Strip, building new connections between people, neighborhoods, and jobs, and helping shorten commutes and reduce road congestion.

DOT is proud to break ground on this important project, and will continue to support projects like it that bring communities together and put Americans back to work now and into the future.

Comments

[Michael E. Bailey]

The BRT system in Las Vegas will help a great deal to improve overall traffic flow and reduce pollution. Several years ago we went on a trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains and stayed just outside of Lone Pine in a hotel on the Piute-Shoshonie Reservation. There is also a great state park close by. We expected that the air would be clear. But there was a haze coming over the mountains from the Nevada side of the state line. So we asked a Park ranger what it was and he told us smog from Las Vegas. BRT in Las Vegas will help clean up the air on both sides of the stateline. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Yathi Yatheepan]

This is a great news for Nevada. We can't continuously build roads in the Las Vegas city anymore. Transit is the only solution. Hopefully, this project not only ease the traffic, but also create jobs in the state.

[John]

Why is that woman in pink dressed for a night out at a groundbreaking?

[Elmira Security]

Any improvement, any innovation in our city, in our community is very much appreciated. Good thing for Las Vegas they will have these bus transits. While the bus service in Nassau are being stopped.

[steve]

This is great news for las Vegas people.