This was my web site promoting the Seattle Monorail Project, but the project was cancelled in November 2005.
I am maintaining this site for historical reference.

Note: This project was cancelled by popular vote in the election of 8 November 2005. This page is retained to show what could have been.

History

In 1962 a new, modern monorail line was built a distance of a little over a mile to connect downtown Seattle with the site of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. That monorail line still survives as the Seattle Center Monorail.

The Seattle Center Monorail was highly successful and often people proposed that the line be extended, however the ideas never bore fruit until the mid-1990s when a Seattle cab driver strongly promoted the idea of a city-wide monorail system. Support grew and a campaign got underway, with some false starts, but finally in November 2002 the voters of Seattle approved a 14-mile monorail, the Green Line, as the first phase of a city-wide system.

Construction on the Green Line should begin late this year and the first part is scheduled to be opened on December 15, 2007, and the entire line should be open in 2009.

In early 2004 the Seattle Monorail Project beginning planning for the next phase of the city-wide system. There are presently six possible corridors for the next line to be built. By the end of 2004 or early 2005 there should be a decision as to which corridor will be selected for our next monorail line.

The Current Situation

There are currently six lines in the city-wide plan, as follows:

The Green Line will connect West Seattle to Ballard via Downtown Seattle.

The Blue Line would connect South Seattle to Bitter Lake via Downtown Seattle and Aurora Avenue North.

The Gold Line would connect Rainier Valley to Lake City via Capitol Hill.

The Rainbow Line would connect Downtown Seattle to Lake City via The University District.

The Purple Line would connect Ballard to Laurelhurst via Wallingford and the University District.

The Red Line would connect Southwest Seattle to Rainier Beach via South Seattle.

We also have The Pink Line which would extend the Green Line northeast to Northgate and Lake City and south to the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal.

News

REPORTS EVALUATE 3 CORRIDORS: July 2, 2004 — The Seattle Monorail Project has released preliminary reports evaluating three of the proposed corridors for the seond phase monorail project.

The reports indicate advantages and disadvantages for each of the three corridors: Pink North Corridor, Pink South Corridor, and Blue North Corridor. The Pink Corridors are actually new terms for the previously proposed extensions of the Green Line.

The Pink North Corridor would be an extension of the Green Line from its terminus at 15th Ave. N.W. and N.W. 85th St. in the Crown Hill district to Northgate and Lake City.

The report for this corridor indicate several advantages to a monorail in this corridor, including a concentration of shopping (including Northgate Mall), business, and multiple-unit residential properties. There is also a major transit hub at the Northgate Transit Center, with a convergence many bus routes including regional ones, and the potential of a future North Link light rail line. We also have North Seattle Community College with a high enrollment, and many students use transit. Lake City, east of Northgate, provides another concentration of business and high-density residences, in addition to a neighborhood shopping district. The distances involved are about 3.3 miles from Crown Hill to Northgate and 1.8 to 2.8 miles from Northgate to Lake City.

A negative factor in the report was concern about the need to cross Interstate Highway 5, immediately west of Northgate Mall and the Transit Center.

The Pink South Corridor basically follows Fauntleroy Way S.W. from the Green Line terminus at S.W. Morgan St. for about 1.6 miles to the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock.

The report for this corridor indicates low ridership, especially if the ferry dock is closed, which is considered a possibility. There is also controversy in the neighborhood — although many people would like to see the monorail extended, many others are opposed.

The Blue North Corridor is roughly north from Downtown Seattle along or near Aurora Avenue North.

The arguments in the report in favor of this report include a corridor of businesses, shopping, and higher density housing. Many of the neighborhoods in this corridor want better transit. This corridor also includes Seattle’s most popular park complex, with Green Lake, Woodland Park, and Woodland Park Zoo.

On the minus side, this corridor would require a major bridge to span the Lake Washington Ship Canal.