History

In 1962 there was a large World’s Fair in Seattle. Officially the fair was The Century 21 Exposition, but was better known as the Seattle World’s Fair. The fair itself was very successful, but perhaps more remarkably, the area used for the Fair has been preserved for public use as the Seattle Center. The Seattle Center is an area with fountains, park space, amusement rides, entertainment venues, and other attractions.

Although many of the temporary buildings for the Fair were torn down after the Fair was over, several important structures were saved. The most famous remaining structure is the Space Needle, which has become an internationally known symbol of Seattle. But another important popular attraction of the Fair was the monorail, which has been saved and is still operating.

The monorail was built by the Alweg company of Germany, and in 1962 it was a wonderful new marvel of rapid transit. It ran a little over a mile from Fifth Avenue and Pine Street in the north part of Downtown Seattle to the Seattle World’s Fair, traveling mostly along the center of Fifth Avenue.

Since the World’s Fair the station at Fifth & Pine has been relocated and redesigned, and there have been some other lesser modification, but essentially it is still the same line that began operations in 1962.

There are two beams (guideways) supported about twenty feet above the street, mostly on square concrete columns down the center of 5th Avenue. Near the Seattle Center the guideways curve at the transition from 5th Avenue to 5th Avenue North, because the street changes direction at Denny Way, and north of Denny Way the guideways are aligned along the west side of 5th Avenue North. At the Seattle Center the guideway curve west onto the Center grounds and terminate at the Seattle Center Station. There are only two stations, one at each end of the line.

A few years ago the new Experience Music Project museum was built on the east edge of the Seattle Center grounds and its unique architecture includes being built around the monorail guideway so that monorail riders can actually see the interior of the museum as the trains pass through.

There are two monorail trains, one for each of the two guideways. There is no switching mechanism — each train remains forever on its own guideway, running back and forth from one end of the line to the other. One of the trains is painted red and the other is blue, so they are called the Red Train and Blue Train.

The proposed Green Line monorail would have resulted in demolition of the Seattle Center Monorail in order to make way for the new monorail. However in an election of 8 November 2005 Seattle voters rejected a new plan for the Green Line, thereby ending that project. Therefore the planned demolition of the Seattle Center Monorail was ended.

In December 2005 the two trains collided near the Westlake Center end of the line. In order to build a smaller station at the Westlake Center, the two beams of the monorail guideway were moved closer together along the last few hundred feet of the line. The beams here are too close together for both trains to be in this area at the same time. Procedures and a signal light were set up so that an approaching train would have to wait until the outbound train was clear of this area. However the driver of an inbound train failed to wait and the two trains collided, with the sides of the two trains crunched up against each other. The driver of the inbound trains was fired and work began on determining the extent of the damage. It is not known how much repairs will cost nor how long before the system is operating again.

More about the Seattle Center Monorail on their web site.

News

SEATTLE CENTER MONORAIL REOPENS. OOPS! NO IT DID NOT! (18 July 2006) — Today the Seattle Center Monorail was scheduled to reopen after being shut down following an accident that damaged both trains last year. City officials and the public were gathering for the reopening ceremony. Meanwhile monorail employees conducted one final test, and problems were found in the pneumatic system, so the reopening was cancelled until the problems can be corrected. It is too early to determine when the monorail will reopen.

My Opinions

The collision and monorail safety — The collision between the two trains brings up the issue of whether or not monorails are safe. Essentially monorails are very safe. The guideway beams upon which the trains ride are far enough apart so that trains on parallel beams are far enough apart that they can not crash. Unfortunately, in building the Westlake Center Station, politics won out over engineering. The engineers wanted to keep the beams a safe distance apart, but the developers of Westlake Center wanted a compact station. As a result the design was modified so that the tracks at the end of the line were closer together so the station could be more compact, with a provision that procedures had to be set up so that two trains couldn’t be at or near the station at the same time. To me this was a serious safety blunder—an accident waiting to happen. My opinion is that the station should be rebuilt with a safe distance between beams.

Possible replacement of the monorail line — The cancellation of the Green Line project has saved the Seattle Center Monorail from demolition, however the recent collision between the two trains raises questions about what will happen next. If the cost of repairs is too high, the city may decide to either replace or demolish the 44-year-old monorail line.

My opinion is that if the repair costs are too high, then the line should be rebuilt to the standards that had been planned for the Green Line, using spacious, walk-through trains of the type that Hitachi would have provided for the Green Line. The Westlake Center Station should be rebuilt in accordance with good engineering standards, with the guideway beams far enough apart to avoid collisions. It may also be possible to build a station at Bell Street, utilizing the real estate obtained for the Green Line. More about my suggestions for a replacement line.

Extend the Seattle Center Monorail — I think it would be a good idea to extend the Seattle Center Monorail along Thomas Street (the south side of the Center House) to a new station just south of Key Arena. The guideway would have to be curved further to the south as it comes out of the west side of the Experience Music Project (EMP), with a new station just south of the existing station. The existing station could still be used as a maintenance facility with a switch installed just west of the EMP. The old station could also be used as a monorail museum, with one or both of the old trains on display here. I do not know if the old station could be modified to be both a maintenance facility and a museum.