The Deuce is a

transit bus A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...

service serving the

Las Vegas metropolitan area Clark County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Nevada with 2,265,461 residents as of the 2020 census. The county is the location of the state's three largest cities, Las Vegas (the county seat), Henderson, and North Las Vegas ...

. Operated by

RTC Transit RTC Transit is the name of the public bus system in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Clark County, Nevada. It is a subsidiary of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. While it services most of Clark County with regularly ...

, it began service on October 27, 2005. Originally ''The Deuce'' meant four things: (1) buses on the route were double decked; (2) the one-way

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various p ...

was $2; (3) the route served the two primary gaming areas, the

Strip Strip, Strips or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Nami ...

and

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

; and (4) the first batch of vehicles bought primarily for the service were assigned fleet numbers starting with "2". Although the double decker buses also serve other local routes and the price is no longer $2, the name ''The Deuce on the Strip'' is used by RTC to emphasize that the route refers to just the tourist route. In FY2023, The Deuce had an annual ridership of 5,754,225.The Deuce operates 24 hours a day.

Background

Before the Deuce's debut, the Las Vegas Strip corridor was served by route 301, which ran between Downtown Las Vegas and the former Vacation Village resort. It was also accompanied by its express counterpart, route 302. (When the transit authority was branded as Citizens Area Transit (or CAT), it categorized routes serving the Strip under the 300's.) In March 2010 a new bus rapid transit line connecting the Strip to downtown Las Vegas and Town Square and the South Strip Transfer Terminal became operational. This new 11 mile service was called ACE Gold Line and is similar to the Metropolitan Area Express BRT Line which had been operating since June 30, 2004. Due to a lawsuit by Ace Cab, the line was rebranded as the Gold Line. On November 7, 2010, it was rebranded to be known as the Strip and Downtown Express (SDX). The SDX bus was discontinued due to impacts to revenue from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Previously, RTC planned to shorten The Deuce on the Strip from the current 9.3 miles to just the 5 miles of the Strip from Mandalay Bay Casino to Palace Station on Sahara Avenue. This would have been the first time in 45 years (including Las Vegas Transit System) that the main Strip corridor route had undergone a major route change and be shortened. However, the first week of the service change, the northern portion of the route was reinstated with buses continuing to serve the Downtown Transportation Center, while still ending at Mandalay Bay the hours that the SDX operated.http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/transit/transitguide/TransitGuide(3-28-10).pdf When the SDX was cancelled, buses returned to the Deuce's original route, from South Strip Transit Terminal to Fremont Street. As of 2020, the fare ''for the Las Vegas Strip'' is $6 for a two-hour pass, $8 for a 24-hour pass, or $20 for a 72-hour pass.

Fleet

The route operates using Alexander Dennis Enviro500 vehicles built by the British manufacturer

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom, with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...

. They each seat 27 people on the lower deck, 53 on the upper deck, and are 42 feet long. RTC Transit is one of six transit agencies that operate double-decker buses in the United States for fixed-route services, the others being Unitrans of

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of ...

;

Community Transit Community Transit (CT) is the public transit authority of Snohomish County, Washington, United States, in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates Public transport bus service, local bus, paratransit and vanpool service within Snohomish Count ...

Snohomish County, Washington Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 72nd-most populo ...

; Antelope Valley Transit Authority of

Palmdale, California Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city lies in the Antelope Valley of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On August 24, 1962 ...

and

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the popul ...

;

Foothill Transit Foothill Transit is a public transit agency that is government funded by 22 member cities in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. It operates a fixed-route bus public transit service in the San Gabriel Valley region of eastern Los Angeles Cou ...

of the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the eas ...

; and SLO Transit of San Luis Obispo, CA. All six of the agencies reside on the west coast. In 2006, the RTC announced that they purchased 40 more double-deckers that arrived in Spring 2007, and another 40 that arrived in 2008. These new vehicles replaced the original 50 that have been serving the Strip. The original vehicles were reassigned to local routes (height permitting). These new Deuces are special in that they have 2 staircases, one in the current position, and a second one in the back. They are also 2 feet longer than the present double deckers, and have earned the nickname "Superdeuce." Since January 2008, 80 new double deckers have arrived with half of that order featuring the reconfigured 42 ft, double staircase bus. The double staircase buses are assigned mostly to The Strip, while some, as well as all of the 40 ft double deckers are assigned to local routes. Although rare, some of the 40 ft vehicles will find their way onto The Strip route as a last resort.

References

External links

Deuce on The Strip route map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deuce Transportation in the Las Vegas Valley Las Vegas Strip Double-decker buses 2005 establishments in Nevada