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Seattle Axes Monorail Project

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-of-a-shelbyville-kind-of-idea dept.

Sokie writes "This afternoon the Seattle City Council passed a resolution advocating the terminiation of the Seattle Monorail Project. This follows a recent recommendation by the mayor that the project be scrapped. Lacking city support, the project looks to be dead and the city council will request that the state legislature formally terminate the project during their next session. City councilman Richard Conlin noted that the $1 million per week tax collection required by the SMP would be enough to eliminate fares on the city's bus network."

10 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. Monorail... by SteevR · · Score: 5, Funny

    Monorail... Monorail... Guess the good citizens of Seattle checked up on what happened to the monorail in Springfield and all those other poor towns.

    --
    Performing sanity checks on your own beliefs is vital in avoiding poisoned koolaid.
    1. Re:Monorail... by canadian_right · · Score: 5, Informative
      You are wrong. Urban areas subsidize rual areas.

      Cities, due to their density have much lower tranportation costs. It is much cheaper, per person, to get water and gas services to a single apartment building than 100 rural farms, or even 100 suburban homes. Virtually anything done in a city is cheaper per person than it is in rural areas.

      Urban taxes pay for the network of roads and highways that make suburbs possible. Urban taxes pay the farm subsidizes. Urban taxes pay for public transit outside of cities. Urban taxes pay for rural schools and hospitals.

      http://www.ewg.org/reports/gastaxlosers/analysis.p hp
      http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Infrastructure/ov erview.htm
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/07/05/AR2005070500594.html
      http://www.techliberation.com/archives/015244.php
      http://www.blueoregon.com/2005/03/joined_at_the_h. html

      --
      Anarchists never rule
    2. Re:Monorail... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Um, Seattle is pretty much carrying the rest of the state in terms of tax burden to services provided. In much of the US, it's the town that carries the rural, not the other way around."

      This is a fiction that a lot of Seattlelites like to believe. If you actually look at the distribution of tax intake around Washington state, you'll find it's the suburbs that are bearing the brunt of the tax burden. While our state's businesses like to complain about needing tax relief, their tax load is quite light when compared to that of the state's individual taxpayers.

      I for one am glad to see the monorail die. We don't need a bunch of half-*ssed transit systems - we need one overarching system that actually meets the Puget Sound region's needs (note: not just Seattle's).

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Monorail... by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Normally I don't respond to AC, but this is the most wrong thing I've read on Slashdot in ages.
      Since FDR's administration, the US Government has pursued a policy of low food costs, which has been sustained through ag subsidies that remove smaller producers by encouraging consolidation and scale.
      Can you please explain to the audience how subsidies lower food prices? The opposite is true: subsidies prop up inefficient farming and raise prices for consumers. Domestic sugar subsidies have bilked the common American out of billions over the years in the biggest wealth transfer scheme of all time. The same is true to a lesser degree for many domestic crops which are protected from foreign competition by federal subsidy.

      You might say that subsidies ensure a stable domestic food supply, which is a strategic necessity. I wouldn't argue against that, but I can hardly see how you expect us to believe that farm subsidies help the consumer at the expense of the farmer. Clearly the opposite is true.

  2. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I see 4 out of the first 5 comments are Simpsons references, once again proving that nobody on Slashdot has a sense of humour to call their own.

  3. Public Transit is Critical by killercoder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in Toronto Canada, but travel to the US alot on business and for pleasure.

    As a Toronto resident I can get by without a car, just about anywhere in this city, even most of the outlying regions, can be reached quickly via rail (and sometimes a connecting bus), its not perfect, but most times my transit time is less than 30 minutes. When I visit New York City its even better, a GREAT public transit system.

    Yet if I visit Jacksonville, Housten, Atlanta (hell just about anywhere in the south) I HAVE to rent a car, public transit is poor or non-existant. Yet they wonder why they have smog issues, and traffic congestion? Ever wonder what the south would be like if they had rail? They can't build subways (water table issue) but a monorail or just plain old above ground rail system would go a long way to improving their quality of life. Oil prices too high? Take the train, its cheaper.

  4. Re:Not suprising by tigersaw · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, there is in fact great interest for building rail transit in Seattle, the Monorail was just doomed from the start by poor management and poor planning. However, the Sound Transit Light Rail is chugging along just fine, and with any luck will complete its own line and supercede that which the monorail would have occupied in the near(ish) future.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, all our base are belong to you!
  5. Re:Monorail fixation by Martin+Blank · · Score: 5, Informative
    They're supposed to be:
    • Quieter -- They use non-metallic wheels, often on a non-metallic surface, though I don't know if this applies to high-speed monorails.
    • Aesthetically pleasing -- Since they are usually on raised structures, they use less surface space, don't interfere as much with foot or vehicle traffic, and the rails and their supports can be made to look nice.
    • Safer -- They're relatively hard to derail, and since the rails don't usually run at ground level, there are fewer things to hit.
    • Less expensive in the long run -- Not sure how this works out, since I've not seen the economics of monorails.

    I can see the point of the proponents, but US transportation management does not have a good record of building expensive things now and having them operate less expensively later.
    --
    You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
  6. Most ill-conceived project, ever by Tomy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    As one of the (angry) tax payers funding this project, I'd really like to see some heads roll over this one. We're not getting any of our money back (I pay almost $400 a year for this), and we will continue to have to pay for an additional two years until they sell off the 36 properties they aquired through iminent domain (which should go back to the original owners if the project is scrapped).

    The project is complete lunacy since the stations have no provision for parking/park and ride, and the route follows an existing bus line and would not be any faster than that bus line. And it would cost more per ride.

    I could support it if they actually tried something innovative, like the Skyweb Express, but as the project stands, it's just a solution looking for a problem.

    I am part of the small minority of Seattlites whose home and work are in walking distance of the originally proposed line, and I can't see any reason to choose it, since it would cost me more to ride it than driving to work and paying for parking.

  7. Why Seattle Needed the Monorail by elister · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like some cities on the West Coast, Seattle has hills and light rail doesnt work very well with hills. Light rail construction (which is not elevated) has been ongoing for years now, but most of the costs associated with it have to do with tunneling. Its a soft soil, so when you hit bodies of water, you have have to dig even deeper, which costs more money and takes longer to tunnel.

    With Monorail, all you need to do is clear a path. Buy out business along the green line, no tunneling is involed. Plus im told that monorail can be converted to handle a maglev type of transportation. It was originally supposed to cost under 2 billion, but people didnt like the tax and decided to register their cars outside of KingCounty. This caused a severe drop in revene and prompted the monorail execs to resort to drastic funding (junk bonds, high intrest loans, etc) to the point where its going to cost over 10 billion.

    We need the monorail (or some form of elevated transportation) because there isnt enough room to build more highways. The sucess of the monorail would have helped to extend it to other areas of King County such as Redmond or Tacoma. I used to temp at Microsoft, and getting to Redmond from Seattle wasnt really a problem, but getting home sure was a nightmare. Any minor problem, and your going to see backups.

    King County citizens voted in favor for the monorail 5 times! And yet, its never gonna be built. Its beyond surreal.