Metropolitan Area Express (Las Vegas)
| MAX Line: Las Vegas Boulevard North | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| System | RTC Transit |
| Operator | MV Transportation |
| Vehicle | 10 Irisbus Civis |
| Status | Former Service Route |
| Began service | June 30, 2004 |
| Ended service | February 20, 2016 (11 years) |
| Routes | |
| Routes | 501 |
| Locale | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Start | Bonneville Transit Center |
| End | Craig Road South Station (Nellis Air Force Base) |
| Length | 7 miles (11 km) |
| Stations | 22 |
| Service | |
| Ridership | 195,203 (June 2008) |
The Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, was a bus rapid transit (BRT) line owned by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and operated by MV. MAX began operations on June 30, 2004. The area served extended between the Downtown Transportation Center and North Las Vegas.
Following changes instituted on February 21, 2016, the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) no longer operates, with additional services added to RTC's route 113.
The route ran on a 12-minute frequency during the day and 20 minutes at night using only ten vehicles purchased from Irisbus in France. These vehicles could hold a passenger load of 131 passengers. All fare payment was done off the vehicle at the stations. Special ticket vending machines were at every station, where passengers had to pay fare before boarding, as there was no fare box on board. Once on board, fare enforcement officers were at hand to check bus passes, which are issued by the TVM upon payment. The Irisbus "Civis" buses had optical guidance equipment and a driver's seat positioned in the center, and otherwise were essentially the same as that manufacturer's "Cristalis" model.
The BRT service was chosen by the RTC over light rail service due, in part, to costs of building and maintaining light rail. The RTC felt it was better to operate rubber tire transit rather than to have an expensive light rail system that would be too much to operate.