The Great $4,000,000,000 Experiment
Green Line travel times and distances
A Proposed Regional Monorail System
Jump Start Blue Line (Get to Shoreline Faster)
A table comparing light rail and monorail
Link Monorail (not light rail)
Arguments against monorail and my responses
My opinions regarding priorities
Note: This project was cancelled by popular vote in the election of 8 November 2005.
What is the Green Line?
The Green Line was the first of six monorail lines that had been planned for a monorail rapid-transit system in Seattle.
Click here for more information about the proposed 6-line monorail systemClick here for a map of the proposed 6-line monorail system
Where Would the Green Line Have Gone?
The Green Line would have connected Downtown Seattle with the Ballard and Crown Hill districts of northwest Seattle and the West Seattle district of southwest Seattle. The route was to pass near or through several important destinations, including Safeco Field (home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team), Seahawks Stadium (home of the Seattle Seahawks football team), King Street railroad station, the Seattle Center (amusement, entertainment, cultural, and educational center), and Key Arena (home of the Seattle Supersonics basketball team).
Click here for map of Green LineWhat was the Project Schedule?
In Summer of 2005 a tentative agreement was reached to design, build, operate, and maintain the Green Line. The line was scheduled to open to passenger service in 2010.
Who Was to Build the Green Line?
Two teams of businesses were competing for building the monorail line:
Cascadia Monorail Company, LLC is a team including Hitachi as the train manufacturer.
The interior of a Hitachi monorail train
Note: A different seating layout was planned
for the Green Line trains.
Team Monorail is a team including Bombardier as the train manufacturer.
Team Monorail announced in August 2004 that they will not bid, leaving Cascadia Monorail as the only bidder. It was with Cascadia that the SMP reached an agreement. However the financing scheme was not satisfactory, and the resulting controversy ended on 8 November 2005 when Seattle voters voted 2 to 1 in favor of building no monorail.
