Figure 2-12: max marketing materials

According to RTC, the most valuable part of the launch campaign were the “meet MAX” events in February - March 2004 and May - June 2004. Event locations included major stores, housing projects, and a swap meet. The events were held twice due to the postponing of the launch date. A CIVIS vehicle and a ticket vending machine were brought to each location to demonstrate their use and generate excitement about the new look of transit.

RTC also made substantial efforts to reach students and seniors. The school program included a letter offering to give MAX presentations, pass holders, activity pages for children, and RTC promotional materials. RTC created a MAX brochure for direct mailings, a MAX poster for display, and gave out free ride passes at various special events and community fairs along the corridor. Most promotional materials were produced in both English and Spanish.

Three media events were scheduled throughout the MAX implementation process. On September 12, 2002, a CIVIS test vehicle was available to the media for an initial look. A MAX Vehicle Media Day was scheduled upon the arrival of the first official MAX vehicle on August 7, 2003. RTC held a press conference for the launch of MAX, June 30, 2004. MAX was dedicated to the residents along Las Vegas Boulevard North. The event included a band and color guard to salute MAX.

Figure 2-13: Opening Day Celebration

3.0 System costs

BRT systems are designed as premium services and thus typically have higher costs as compared with standard bus services but lower costs as compared with similar premium services such as light rail. A key element of this evaluation, therefore, was to consider capital and operating costs associated with the MAX system. The following section discusses both the capital and operating costs of the project.

3.1 Capital Costs

The total capital costs associated with developing the MAX system is $20.2 million – this would rank among the lowest startup costs for a new BRT system in the U.S. As shown in Table 3-1, the majority of these costs are associated with vehicle procurement (60 percent), station design (27 percent) and the fare collection system (10 percent).

The following unit costs are provided for comparison to other systems:

• The first 20 stations were $230,680 per station for construction.

• The additional Lake Mead stations were $64,278 per station for construction.

• All station planning, design and construction was $247,923 per station.

• The first 5 CIVIS buses were $1,309,250 per bus.

• The second 5 CIVIS buses were $1,013,660 per bus.

• All vehicle costs, including training and inspection were $1,209,646 per bus.

Table 3-1: Overview of Capital Costs associated with the max service*

Item	Cost	% of Total Cost
Shelters
Design / Planning	$1,173,516
Construction of Initial Passenger Shelters	$4,152,232
Construction of 2 Additional Passenger Shelters	$128,566
	$5,454,304	27%
Optical Guidance
Pavement Markings	$43,197	0.2%
Vehicles**
Initial 5 CIVIS Buses	$6,546,250
Driver and Maintenance Training	$141,150
5 Additional CIVIS Buses	$5,068,300
Vehicle Manufacturing Inspection	$340,760
	$12,096,460	60%
Signal Priority
Planning, Implementation & Evaluation	$138,028
Hardware	$130,945
	$268,973	1.3%
Fare Collection
Fare Collection System	$1,800,686
Ticket Vending Machine Service Design	$200,000
	$2,000,686	10%
AVL
Installation by Orbital	$298,810	1.5%
TOTAL	$20,162,430

Notes on MAX Capital Costs

* The cost of purchasing the running ways (bus lane) is not included in costs as Nevada DOT provided this at no charge to RTC.

** The optical guidance costs in this chart are included in the cost of each MAX bus. The separate cost of the guidance system was $95,000 per bus, plus an initial $500,000 to prepare a study to determine location of pavement markings.