Work recently began on ACE, a new rapid transit system that will take passengers from downtown Las Vegas to McCarran Airport.

The first phase of the project, the ACE downtown connector, recently broke ground and will run in a dedicated travel lane, eliminating the need for the vehicles to compete with traffic. The route will travel along Grand Central Parkway and Casino Center Boulevard before making its way to the Sahara Monorail Station and the Las Vegas Convention Center. While the dedicated lane ends in the downtown area, service will continue in traffic with other vehicles along Las Vegas Boulevard South. The vehicles will make a limited amount of stops along the route.

The system will look and feel like a light rail service but will have the flexibility of operating on regular streets. ACE will utilize a number of rail-like features including level platform boarding and off-board fare collection. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) will operate the system using the Wright StreetCar vehicles, which can accommodate more than 100 people.

The new project is the result of a collaborative effort among many individuals and organizations. The $75 million project received funding from the federal government with help from Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Shelley Berkley, the Federal Transit Administration , the city of Las Vegas and the RTC .