Monorail Promotion
Project

by Bob Fleming

Image courtesy of the late Seattle Monorail Project

The purpose of this site is to promote construction of a monorail system in the Seattle area.

Why Monorail?

A monorail is not just a fun ride at Disneyland. Larger versions are often better than light rail for urban rapid transit. Click here for details.

Learn More!

The best source to learn about monorails is The Monorail Society. There are also some DVDs available.

(March 12, 2013)

Remote Parking Plus Monorail Can Avoid Conflict Between New Arena and Port

There is fear that traffic congestion from a new basketball arena could seriously impact nearby port operations. A monorail linking remote parking lots with the new arena, CenturyLink Field, and Safeco Field could actually reduce congestion! For details. click here.

(March 26, 2012)

New Group Proposes West Seattle - Ballard Monorail

Century Transportation Authority (CTA) proposes a monorail from West Seattle to Downtown and on to Ballard roughly following the route of the Green Line of the late Seattle Monorail Project, killed by politics. For much more information, go to the CTA website. As for my opinions about the CTA plan, click here.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn proposes a light rail line connecting West Seattle and Ballard to Downtown. Wouldn’t monorail be better? Click here for more!

Why not a a monorail linking Downtown, Seattle Center, and the Cruise Terminal? Click here for more!

Link light rail trains are now running—what if there were a monorail instead? Click here for ongoing news!

We still need the Green Line, more than ever! Click here for more!

How can we get a new monorail built? Click here for more!

Other Sites of Mine

History

Seattle has one of the World’s first modern monorails. It was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, and still operates today as the The Seattle Center Monorail. It runs only a little over a mile from downtown Seattle to the Seattle Center, on the site of the former World’s Fair, but it is a very popular attraction and is a working example of a modern monorail. It demonstrates how monorail can be an alternative to subways or commuter railways for urban rapid transit.

In a city-wide election on 6 November 2002 the citizens of Seattle approved a new 14-mile long monorail to be built in Seattle. This line was named the Green Line, and would have been the first of several lines in a city-wide system of monorails. However, in the Summer of 2005 there were financing problems and in an election on 8 November 2005, the people voted to cancel the monorail project.

The Current Situation

The Seattle Center Monorail is operating. There is very little talk at the present about new monorail in this area.

There has been some discussion about mass transit between downtown Seattle and West Seattle, and also between downtown and Ballard, as one possible option for handling traffic during closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct for construction of a replacement. The Alaskan Way Viaduct is a major elevated freeway along the Seattle waterfront that is old and will probably be shut down in the near future (this is currently a matter of hot debate). There has been occasional suggestion of monorail as a mass transit option.

Local Monorail News

NEW GROUP PROPOSES WEST SEATTLE-BALLARD MONORAIL (March 26, 2012) — Century Transportation Authority (CTA or CenTran) proposes a monorail from West Seattle to Downtown and on to Ballard roughly following the route of the Green Line of the former Seattle Monorail Project. For much more information, go to the CTA website. As for my opinions about the CTA plan, click here.

My Opinions

In my opinion the cancelled monorail Green Line was an excellent project from the standpoint of design and importance as a key transportation system, but was shot down due to insufficient funding, some management errors, and politics. I believe it to still be the best solution for rapid mass transit in the western parts of Seattle. I believe there should be a new effort to build the Green Line .

For my ideas about possible new monorail projects in the Seattle area, please click here.

For my opinions about replacing the existing Seattle Center Monorail with a new, modern, and extended line, and for improvements to Key Arena, keeping the Sonics, and a new Monorail Museum, click here.

For my opinions regarding the recent Seattle Monorail Project demise and future possibilities, please click here.

Click here to read my opinions about the Seattle Monorail Project and other Seattle-Area monorail plans. As for my opinions about the CTA plan, click here.