My WAX Experience - To & From the Airport

OK...I finally gave in, and tried the WAX (Westcliffe Airport Express bus) on this just-completed trip.

Here is my report.
Had to wait about 40 minutes before the bus arrived. I guess I must have just missed an earlier one.
For some reason, I was expecting to see a space for luggage on the bus...nope...just a standard city bus.
Now, as for "express"? We made 8 stops before arriving at 4th & Carson. Some were quite lengthy (UNLV transit center, for one).

Took just over an hour (70 minutes) to get to the 4th@Carson stop. Add in my wait time & it was almost two hours from my arrival at the bus stop to exiting the bus.

Just be aware that this express trip takes some real time.

For the return?
FAR better!
Picks up on Casino Center, on the east-side Binions. Made 5 stops - all of them fast - and arrived at Terminal 1 a mere 34 minutes after I boarded.

Total transit costs to/from the airport? $2... (a guy at the Binions stop gave me his RTC ticket that had two hours left on it, saving me the $2 for my return.)

So - getting to downtown? Quite lengthy. If time is a not a factor, it is certainly the most economical way to get downtown. If an hour is too long, don't do it.
Going back to the airport? I highly recommend it!

 

My trip on it wasn't nearly as bad. Took maybe 40 min from the airport to downtown. But I got in just before it came so that helped.

 

Unless things have changed, you sure you were on the WAX?

Coming out of the airport, the bus stops at NYNY, then heads onto I-15. Nothing to do with UNLV. It then makes 3 more stops, including the Westcliff Transit Station before arriving at 4th & Carson. Also, every WAX bus I have been on has luggage racks.

 

Here were all of the stops going back to the airport:
Got on at Casino Center at Fremont
1. 3rd at Lewis (Regional Justice Center)
2. Bonneville Transit Center
3. LV Premium Outlets /Government Center
4. Tropicana at Las Vegas Blvd
5. Tropicana at Koval
Exited terminal 1, McCarran.

Going downtown, I must have been on the wrong bus, trusting another passenger who told me that the bus we got on was the WAX.

We took Maryland Parkway, and made a LOT of stops en-route to downtown...Perhaps it was a different 'express' bus.

 

Pretty sure (now) that I was not on the WAX going downtown... we took Maryland almost the entire way.

Going back though...it was definitely the WAX...and it was just a standard city bus...no luggage rack.

 

Sounds like you were taking the CX from McCarran to downtown. The CX stops at UNLV and "rests" there for like 10 minutes. If you took the WAX to downtown, it goes on the 15 freeway. Scheduled time is like 40 minutes.

 

Thanks!
I will have to try it again for my next trip...and not trust the word of other passengers waiting for the bus.

 

Which terminal did you leave the airport from? Terminal 1 should only have WAX and Terminal 3 has both WAX and CX.

I took the CX to Mirage via the TI tram once, but if you're going DT then WAX is definitely superior. IIRC the CX I was on didn't have luggage racks like the WAX does either.

 

I've never had the WAX stop at the UNLV either. I've been downtown in less than a half hour.

 

Top, just a tip looking at your sig. When we have taken the WAX, we flash our WI DL and put a buck in each way. They claim you must have at RTC approved ID for the senior discount, but no driver has ever questioned us. Maybe 12 single trips to date we have done this.

But now I have a followup question for you and the group...If you were on the CX, wouldn't you have had to purchase a ticket prior to boarding? You don't on the WAX, they take cash.

 

Joe - I fed two $1 bills into the machine next to the driver.
But hey - good to know that I qualify as a "senior" at age 57.
If that means a buck off, I'll take it!

prog...it was Terminal 1, and then we went to 3 & waited there for about 5 minutes...

Candy... not sure what bus I got on, but is seems apparent that it wasn't the WAX... when I looked at the schedules for the 108/109, none of them seem to match the bus I was on...but the 109 does stop at UNLV & the Howard Hughes center something...& I know my bus stopped at those while taking it's sweet time going down Maryland Parkway!

 

Holy cow. I wouldn't go through all of that even if it was free.

 

Universal, I think you miss the point. He didn't get on the WAX bus, he got on the wrong bus. Otherwise it is an easy $2 ride to downtown in about 35 minutes, depending on your arrival time and the bus schedule.

 

Topcard, just one correction. There is no stop at Trop and LV Blvd. Maybe you just hit the very long red light. After exiting I-15, the WAX goes East past the Trop and stops around Koval. It does not make a passenger stop after it exits the interstate until Koval.

 

You were on the CX for sure. The CX is the exact same bus as the WAX. It also takes $2 bills.

I talk to the bus drivers all the time. Its the same bus. The WAX routes, become CX routes at terminal 3 and vice versa.

So what probably happened was when you came to terminal 1 it said WAX. People told you to get on which was correct. When you got to terminal 3 it stopped for like 5 minutes or so and became the CX.

So to be clear, the end of the route is terminal 3. Sometimes when the WAX or CX arrives at terminal 3 it flips over and becomes the opposite route. So leaving terminal 3 is the start of the new route.

I m in vegas pretty much every week and take either the CX or WAX everytime. This is what happened, trust me

 

That makes sense. So if it were going to stay the WAX it would have picked him up at 1, taken him to 3, and then went back to 1 before getting back onto Tropicana, if I'm reading their brochure PDF correctly.

Also, according to the brochure there is a southbound stop in front of the Tropicana (Point H). I guess this is analogous to the stop in front of NYNY on the way north. I wouldn't doubt that on Joe's trips they may have skipped it if no one requested the stop and the driver saw no one waiting to get on, or this may have just been changed recently (I remember them stopping there in September 2014).

There used to be an 'Airport Express Routes' brochure on the RTC site that covered both routes, looks like they don't have that anymore and the individual WAX and CX pdfs are a bit more confusing. It doesn't say anything on either about the bus changing routes, whereas I think it used to on the combined brochure.

Guess I'll just have to ask the Terminal 1 WAX if it's staying the WAX from now on.

 

Thanks for this. I've seen lots of people advising using the busses to save money, but very few reviews of the experience.

 

At Terminal 1, the WAX Southbound heads to Terminal 3 before becoming the CX. The WAX Northbound goes downtown.
A good bus driver heading southbound would warn you before you pay your fare.

 

Joe...we made two stops on Tropicana before turning onto Paradise... one was smack-dab in front of the Tropicana Hotel...40 or 50 ft. past the LVB signal...MGM to the left...the other was just a bit before Paradise,,,almost nothing around the stop...so, I assume that's the 'Koval' stop.

 

Supra....thank you!! Perfect explanation of everything that led to my NOT "express" trip to downtown!!