Monorail rescue is second this week

After passengers on a stranded Seattle Center monorail had to climb down fire-engine ladders yesterday after the second stall in a week, the question came up: How would people leave the proposed Green Line in an emergency?

The Seattle Fire Department could require a new monorail to have a catwalk along its entire length from Ballard to West Seattle. National fire codes prescribe a walkway or other suitable means of escape.

The usual method of rescuing monorail riders is to park an empty train along the disabled one. But Assistant Fire Marshal John Nelsen said that wouldn't work in some situations.

"A monorail stall is not necessarily an emergency, (but) if you had a monorail that was stalled because it is on fire, that walkway becomes very important. That is the one scenario where you can't argue away the necessity of a walkway," he said.

Walkways are already budgeted by the Elevated Transportation Co. as a $14 million item, or $1 million a mile, in the agency's $1.7 billion cost estimate to build the Green Line if voters approve the plan Nov. 5.

Talks are under way between the ETC, which came up with the Green Line plan, and fire officials about alternative methods — such as equipping fire engines with special platforms to reach monorail doors, said ETC researcher Joel Horn. But a final decision is unlikely until after the public vote.

Nelsen predicted that, "Ultimately, we won't approve their plans without a walkway."

However, Seattle Fire Marshal Gregory Dean said he remains open to discussion — in other words, a walkway is mandatory unless monorail officials prove they have a better plan.

Firefighters come to rescue

Yesterday's stall, above Fifth Avenue near Broad Street at 11:36 a.m., caused the evacuation of 25 people. On Sunday, the ladder trucks aided 26 people at a disabled train a few blocks away.

The mishaps occur at a politically unfortunate time for monorail campaigners, whose slogans include "Monorails Don't Get Stuck in Traffic."

An emergency catwalk would worsen the Green Line's visual effects, argues Henry Aronson of Citizens Against the Monorail.

"We not only have the two huge highway-girder type guideways ... we have a three-foot walkway between them that will cast shadow, collect dirt, bird droppings, whatever," he said.

Walkways or similar passenger escapes are also mandatory for the Metro bus tunnel and the planned Sound Transit light-rail line, said deputy chief Nelsen.

In addition, water pipes must be installed on the Green Line's proposed Ballard monorail bridge and its tracks above the West Seattle Bridge, so firefighters can commandeer an empty train, hook up hoses and spray a burning train, he said.

Horn pointed out that the Japanese monorail system does not use walkways and said it has never had a fire.

"I'm not yet convinced a walkway is in the best interest of public safety, but we haven't had a detailed conversation," he said. "Of course there's an aesthetic element, but safety has got to be the No. 1 concern, period."

If fire officials require walkways, they can be designed to let sunlight through, he said.

Power loss causes stall

Yesterday's failure originated in the undercarriage of a train heading south toward Westlake Center. A brick-sized block of carbon broke off from the second of four railcars, causing a power loss that automatically released the air brakes. That carbon block is one of eight that maintain contact with a thin copper rail, transmitting electricity into the drive system. A monorail driver found the black carbon scrap on the street after the stall.

On Sunday, a tire ruptured and sliced an air hose in the monorail braking system. The two stalls were both "freak events," and apparently unrelated, said Matt Abbey, operations manager for the historic 1962 line.

Usually in a monorail stall, drivers can restart the power and proceed to a station, Abbey said. Yesterday and Sunday, passengers would have hopped onto the line's other train, but that train was undergoing scheduled repairs.

Previously, ladder trucks removed stranded passengers in May 1994 and February 2001, said Perry Cooper, a Seattle Center spokesman.

The one-mile system was closed yesterday afternoon, and it was hoped that it could be repaired and back in service by 7 a.m. today. However, repairs were still underway at 9 a.m. Cooper said mechanics were trying to get it back in service by this afternoon.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com. Reporters Susan Gilmore and Dave Birkland contributed to this article.