Amtrak boarding area is shared with BNSF rail workers area. It is basically picnic tables outside…read morethe BNSF offices. If it is your first time coming here, don't park in front of Garces, that is a far walk. You'll have to park near the BNSF office building (You'll see the AMTRAK marquee hanging on the side). BTW, its mostly parallel parking for Amtrak passengers. I love that this Needles station is here, which makes it convenient for my friends and I. However, it sucks that there is no indoor facilities (such as restroom, or shelter from rain, etc.)

Well, my 65 year old sister was dropped off by taxi to take the southwest chief train into LA. It's…read moremidnight, its dark and still very hot in July. Very scary and creepy scene and all the hype about a nice air conditioned waiting room online is BS. I guess the Needles City Council decided to close the train waiting room last spring due to some vandalism despite the summer heat advisory. Furthermore, Amtrak fails to correct the inaccurate information about no accessible station on its website. There is nobody around at all and no signage to even let people who are waiting know if they are in the right place. UPDATE: Train is currently more than 2 hours late and the few poor passengers waiting are stranded out there in the heat- no shelter cover, no water, no restrooms and standing outside in an active rain and lightening storm. Really Amtrak! and to the Needles City Council-why not get a security person to man the station in your damn town or just shut the station down. You are negligently endangering travelers who come to ride that train! Finally, I will send this writing personally to each council member in Needles so it will be on record how the council created and maintains an unsafe situation for travelers through their city during the extreme summer heat conditions. Beware of Amtrak and Beware of the council members in Needles CA!

john in #22 blue car he is a very good driver I fell really…read moresafe in his cab on a scale 1-10 he is a 10+ when I get into his cab he said let me guess ELTRAVDOR #137 keep up the great work thank u Christine

Driver Carilee Wilson (CC) was very polite and got me to my destination on time. Will definitely…read more use yellow cab again if the need arises. Thank you, Janet Harris

Who doesn't appreciate free transportation?…read more This express travels between the Aria, Bellagio and Park MGM. That doesn't sound like a big deal on the surface but the walking steps between the Bellagio and Park MGM is a lot. In each car there's seating and poles to support those standing.

Very convenient way to move through Las Vegas! If you didn't…read morewant to walk long distances to reach each hotel/ casino! We would hop on at the Park MGM- Complimentary- no charge. Multiple stops! Highly recommended! Very clean! Great views from the platform and during the ride! Platforms had great murals

Vegas traffic, crowds, and walking miles and miles through casinos can wear you out fast. So when…read morewe were at the LINQ, we decided to give the Las Vegas Monorail a try and rode from the LINQ station down to MGM Grand. And honestly... I really liked it! The monorail was super clean, felt safe, and was relatively inexpensive compared with some of the other transportation options around the Strip. It was also nice to hop on, relax, and let someone else do the driving while we took in the Vegas scenery. We purchased a 24-hour pass, thinking we'd get plenty of use out of it during our stay. Unfortunately, our schedule got so packed that we never had the chance to ride it again. That's probably the only downside -- we didn't get our money's worth out of that pass! Still, for getting up and down the Strip without dealing with traffic, rideshares, or a serious case of tired feet, the Monorail is a pretty convenient option. Clean, easy, safe-feeling, and a lot less walking. In Vegas, that's a win in my book!

Now onto the 2nd to last 2 of 2010's decade of my scrapbook series representing November 2019 is…read morethe Las Vegas Monorail. The Vegas Monorail is actually pretty efficient going about 50 mph along about a 4-mile stretch of the Strip. Trains arrive frequently so you never have to wait long. It's a pretty comfortable ride and quick. In the mid 20th century, the monorail seemed like it would be the future of mass transit. Perhaps, the most well known is Disney World in Orlando built in the early 1970's. Monorails aren't really the best for mass transit. They are expensive to build. But there are rare exceptions where they can work. This is if put in high touristy area for a short distance. This is along a 4-mile stretch of the strip. But this wouldn't be good to expand the monorail to downtown Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, etc. It'd be prohibitively expensive to build many miles of track & need the land to build elevated track. Another example is in Seattle about 1 mile from Seattle Center, where the space needle & site of the 1962 World's Fair showing how the monorail was going to be the future. Goes from Seattle Center to downtown Seattle. People ride it for the convenience of getting between the 2 touristy areas and just for fun nostalgic value. As for the Vegas monorail, I had been on it a couple of times when visiting Vegas with my parents. In November 2019, my girlfriend of that time & I were there for a wedding. We rode the monorail for convenience once to efficiently travel from south to north the entire length from OYO (walking to MGM Grand where the southern most stop is) to Sahara (northernmost stop). We hung at Sahara & Strat, where another friend was staying. Then took Uber to downtown where we staying. We found the Vegas monorail to be efficient & enjoyable. It's kind of no frills and doesn't go that far, but it does the job to get you to where you want to go. Unfortunately, the Vegas monorail may be defunct in 2035 as Elon Musk's Boring Company is building tunnels all across the Vegas Valley, which will be dozens of miles of private driverless Tesla going to lots of stops underground. It'll cover a lot more land, but there are a lot of downsides too. One of which is monorail will not be needed anymore.

This is such a great timesaver if you are trying to get from one spot to the next. I was in town…read morefor a conference and had some after hours events to attend and this helped with all the walking that was already taking place.

We were visiting our cousins who were staying at the Luxor. After a day at the pool, we had to get…read moreback to the Flamingo to get ready for dinner and a night out clubbing. Rather than take a taxi or Uber, we decided to take the monorail. This was a bad idea. The station is at the MGM, which was a short walk from the Luxor. No biggie we thought. However, You have to walk through all of the MGM Grand to get to the monorail station. We bought our passes on the app on the way, walking. But geez, we had to walk through the Luxor, through Excalibur, across the bridge to New York, New York, then into the Grand. All told, we walked about 3 miles including walking from the monorail stop to the Flamingo. The monorail was also loaded with a bunch of guys having a good time who had a "little too much" to drink, so it was loud and rowdy but not scary. It was convenient once we got to the station at the back of the MGM and if there was better access, it would've been our go to transportation. I can see the value on fight nights or Raiders games or any other time the strip is packed. But for a regular Friday, I would rather have paid the $20.00 for the Uber.

This particular stop on the Las Vegas monorail is pleasant enough…read more Whenever I am in Vegas, I use the monorail. It is an efficient way of getting around the Las Vegas strip and for the minimal cost, it let's me avoid all the shuttle bus from trade shows to hotels nightmares. This is the last stop north on the monorail.

Life is often so serious that we forget to laugh at ourselves. Fortunately, Las Vegas provided me…read morewith a humbling opportunity to do so. I was meeting two friends at The Sphere to see The Wizard of Oz. By this point in my trip, I had become quite confident in my public transportation skills. Having mastered The Deuce bus route, I decided it would be my transportation de jour. Somewhere along the way, my brain was convinced that the Sahara Hotel and The Sphere were neighbors. News flash: they are not! Undeterred, I proceeded to the Sahara monorail station. There was no human to be found. Are we living in a humanless society? (sidebar) Nervously, I boarded the monorail, certain victory was within reach. As the train glided along, I watched The Sphere come into view. Score! Except for one tiny detail, the monorail sped past it without stopping. I got off at The LINQ station and was told I was very close, which probably meant "you should probably pack a suitcase." At this point, it was 20 minutes before show time. Therefore, I accepted defeat and hailed a cab for the final stretch. Nothing says "transportation expert" quite like taking a bus, a monorail, and a taxi to get to the same destination. I finally arrived at The Sphere with ten minutes to spare. Once I collected my thoughts, I realized The Sphere was across street from my hotel. What a goofball!!! The lesson learned? In Las Vegas, nothing is as close as it looks, and confidence in your navigation skills is often just the universe setting you up for laughter.

BRT comes to Las Vegas! BRT stands for bus rapid transit and is sort of a hybrid between light rail…read moreand regular bus service. It has all the benefits of light rail including prepaid boarding, level boarding, dedicated rights-of-ways, etc without the high costs associated with vehicles and track. The ACE Gold Line serves the Las Vegas Convention Center, Downtown Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Strip. The system runs on its own dedicated right-of-way in downtown, while on the strip it shares the road with other vehicles. Because of this, the vehicles are bound to get bogged down on Las Vegas Blvd. when the Strip becomes a proverbial parking lot. With high frequency, relatively high speeds, and well marked, well lit stations, the ACE Gold Line is a welcomed mass transit option for Las Vegas!

So some people might be wondering, what is the Gold Line? It's not called that anymore but the…read moreStrip & Downtown Express / SDX. Anyways, if I have to go around the strip, I prefer taking this over the Deuce when possible. It does not go to every casino like the Deuce, but that's the point for me. I like to spend as little time as possible in the normally crowded hotbox. I am normally heading down to Cosmopolitan so it works for me. It stops at Fashion Show/ Wynn, Bellagio/Paris, Excalibur/MGM, Mandalay Bay in the "core" of the strip, so it's not the best for most tourist, but this is a better way to get to the fringes like going down to Town Square, Las Vegas Outlets, heading up to Stratosphere, Downtown or Premium Outlets. Since it doesn't have as many strip stops as Deuce, then you'll get to the other things a bit faster. Just a note if you happen to be at Fashion Show and getting on the bus there, go walk to the Spring Mtn side by Neiman Marcus/Macys and get a bus pass there and come back onto the LV Blvd side to grab this or the Deuce. Since that services residential routes, it has passes at the regular prices and not the strip/tourist price. $3 2 hour passes and $5 all day passes. BTW, unlike the Deuce where the driver is out in the open who you can ask questions to and there is a payment machine on board, this is not set up the same. The driver is sealed behind glass and cannot be bothered and you use the prepaid stations at the stops and be ready to board quickly. If you don't know where you are going, there are maps on the bus route and often RTC ambassadors on the strip stops.

TLDR: Amtrak customer service sucks. I booked coach tickets…read morefor Kingman, AZ to Los Angeles, CA and a roomette from Los Angeles to Seattle, WA. Expense for two people was $816 (flying from Seattle to Arizona one way is $307). About a week after I booked my LA-Seattle leg (a few days after booking Kingman-LA) I received notification via text that my LA-Seattle train had been cancelled. Called customer service to confirm and a gentleman (who didn't really sound well informed) told me that the train was still going but my reservation had been inexplicably cancelled. I called again later that day hoping for more clarity and the second customer service agent told me the train was cancelled due to roadwork and my reservation was not.I don't normally complain about these things but I would also note that the first two people I spoke with were rather challenging to understand as they had heavy accents (not American). Two days later I received an email from Amtrak letting me know that the service would be disrupted but they said "Don't worry, we've already set up alternate transportation for some or all of your route, and there's nothing you need to do." They did not detail what the alternate transportation was nor how that would impact my travel logistics. I called Amtrak yet again, hoping someone could explain the details of the "alternate transportation" and above all, explain the discrepancies in communication. The third person I spoke to initially repeated that the train was cancelled and when I told her about the email I received, she confirmed that the service was up to Emeryville, CA and I would be taking a bus up there from LA. She was not able to confirm how long the bus ride would be except (most of the way). By the way there was no refund so I would be paying $700 (which was the price of this leg of the journey) for a bus ride across 2.5 states. I asked if there was a supervisor available to speak because by this point I had heard three different things from three different people and the vaguest text and email ever. She pointed me to customer service. The 4th customer service agent I spoke to eventually confirmed everything the third customer service agent had said and also couldn't tell me how my arrival time would be impacted by the bus trip. She had to look on google maps to get an idea of the distances and times and said "well that's a long detour." I asked to speak to a supervisor about 5 times and told her it was the worst experience I'd ever had and they'd lost a customer and earned a poor review and she was not able to connect me to anyone else. Cherry on top was the call ending with an opportunity to complete a survey and then the survey was out of order. I ended up cancelling. Of the four, only the first person I spoke with offered me any kind of future discount for my trouble and it was $50. Ridiculous at every level.

I give a lot of credit to the people that work here because they put up with a lot of crap from…read morethese people who ride the bus. Stay away from the restrooms at ALL COST! I miss the old Downtown Transportation Center especially because I they had a few arcade games in the lobby.

The whole place needs new employees. Fire everyone. Worst God Damn service. Not organize, hires…read morecomplete morons or senior citizen. The drivers need retraining and leadership needs replacin. You all suck

The monorail is a wonderful way to get around. We didn't want to be taking Ubers all the time. The…read moremap outlines where you can travel. Just pay attention to your direction.

This station was the closest to the Sphere so we actually walked from from the Sphere after the…read moreBackstreet Boys concert. It was maybe a 10 min walk and so easy to find. Bought tickets online for $5.50 each trip and got on elevator from the bottom of the monorail to the 3rd floor. Took the south bound route and ended up at MGM, so the whole trip was super convenient. It definitely beat having to find and wait for an Uber that never arrived after the concert.