Old monorail may be city's next big worry

Seattle's existing monorail may need up to $100 million in reconstruction if the proposed monorail from West Seattle to Ballard is scuttled by voters or elected officials.

Built for the 1962 World's Fair, the one-mile monorail from downtown to Seattle Center will need extensive work in the future, Center Director Virginia Anderson told the City Council yesterday.

The city has deferred maintenance on the monorail, which carries 2 million riders a year, because the new line was supposed to replace it, Anderson said.

While the old line is safe to ride, the city has found an "increasing number of cracks" in trains and equipment, Anderson said, which have been patched with "baling wire and chewing gum." Councilman Tom Rasmussen said he was recently on Fifth Avenue under the monorail and "it made a noise so alarming it sounded like the wheels were going to come off."

Anderson floated the idea of shifting some car-tab taxes now dedicated to the proposed monorail to "repair the only monorail we have." She said after the meeting that she hadn't discussed such a shift with city leaders but thought she should "put it out there" for the public to consider.

Seattle vehicle owners pay an average of $130 a year in car-tab taxes for the proposed 14-mile Green Line, which would replace the old monorail. Those tax collections currently may be used only for the Green Line, according to a measure voters passed in 2002.

If the proposed line is not built, car owners still will have to pay car-tab taxes for up to two years to pay off the Seattle Monorail Project's debt.

Anderson told the City Council it could take $50 million to $100 million to rebuild the old line, based on construction projections for the Green Line.

"We need to recognize it's a 43-year-old system and it could take a rebuilding. These trains can't go on in perpetuity," she said later.

Mayor Greg Nickels withdrew his support for the proposed monorail last week, denied — at least for now — permission to build on city streets, and called for a Nov. 8 public vote on the project.

The two existing monorail trains received $2.6 million in repairs after a fire last year that shut down the line for seven months. Anderson said she did not want people to think those repairs amounted to a long-term fix for the aging system.

Councilman Richard Conlin said city leaders need to consider contingency plans for the existing monorail because "we probably won't have" the proposed Green Line.

Conlin suggested a community-center property-tax levy, up for renewal in 2007, could be used for the monorail or other Seattle Center needs.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com