Seattle Monorail: Too little, too late

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

We were willing -- perhaps to a fault -- to give board members the benefit of the doubt in their last-ditch effort to rescue the Seattle Monorail Project. But their decision last week to go to the Nov. 8 ballot with a dramatically truncated "first phase" is the last straw.

The new Green Line would be nearly one-quarter shorter, doesn't make the essential Ship Canal crossing, yet will still cost Seattle vehicle owners the same tax rate. This is an unacceptable proposal that we recommend voters reject.

The real problem has never been with the project itself. A grade-separated people mover linking two water-separated ends of the city through the dense urban corridor without reducing existing traffic capacity has always been a sound transit approach, and remains so.

Neither has the real problem been financing, per se. Former Sound Transit finance committee chairman Kevin Phelps quickly demonstrated that literally billions could be cut from the financing costs.

The real problem has been failed management and governance. And governance has failed again, caving to Mayor Greg Nickels' arbitrary deadlines. Complying with Nickels' insistence on a Nov. 8 monorail ballot will encourage more gas tax repeal Initiative 912 votes. (And guess which way?)

Had the monorail board put the full 14-mile project on the ballot, or even a slightly "bobbed" version from Alaska Junction in West Seattle to Northwest Market Street in Ballard, it might well have merited support. But the project proposed instead is too little, too late.

No matter which way voters go on Nov. 8, it's time for a thorough look at what went wrong with SMP governance, not so much to find fault with this project but to find direction for future projects of this magnitude. We suggest that state Attorney General Rob McKenna, with the cooperation of the state Department of Transportation and the city of Seattle, conduct such a review, and present findings to the Legislature in the upcoming session.

Soundoff (Read 6 comments)
Tell us what's on your mind.


If voting today, would you support or reject the proposed shortened monorail project from West Seattle's Alaska Junction to just south of the Ballard Bridge at Dravus?
23.4% Support.	76.6% Reject.
Total Votes: 573