buildthemonorail | sameplan

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Tell The City Council You Want Monorail

The usual well-funded monorail opponents are giving one last try to stop us from building a new monorail in Seattle. The last step is for the Seattle City Council to approve the use of city streets for monorail tracks. It is crucial that you let your voice be heard and tell the City Council that we've voted 4 times for monorail and you want it built. more...

We Must Build The Monorail

There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...

Monorail MVET Growth Analysis

The SMP says the monorail tax will grow at 6.1% per year. The mayor has a more pessimistic view of his economic policy and says it will be 5% per year. We've got the details on the actual difference between the two.

Help Build the Monorail Message

We'll be publishing some print-your-own flyers and brochures here on the site. Help out by adding your suggestions to the comments in this thread. more...

We Must Build The Monorail

There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...

Mayor and City Council Defy Will of the Voters

Once again the denizens of Seattle City Hall are trying to kill the monorail. more...

Monorail Wins!

The monorail has won its 4th election!! Now let's go Build The Monorail! more...

Equity Office's Anti-Monorail Activity Causes Employee to Resign

There's a triumvirate of wealthy property owners downtown that are bankrolling the anti-monorail campaign. One employee has had enough of her employer's questionable ethics and has resigned her job. more...

More Endorsements for the Monorail

The campaign to save the monorail from greedy landlords and corporations continues to rack up endorsements. The anti-monorail campaign is stuck at 0. more ...

WAMU Hit Hard By Boycott

Last week's protest against Washington Mutual's anti-monorail activities was a huge success, resulting in the removal of ~~twice~~ 10 times as much money from the bank than what they've spent to fund lies about the monorail. more ...

Boycott WAMU

Although the anti-monorail campaign is late as usual with their public disclosure filing, reliable sources indicate that Washington Mutual has donated $85,000 to the effort to permanently ban the construction of a monorail in Seattle. It's time to boycott WAMU. more...

Monorail Grassroots At Work

The monorail has won 3 elections due to the combination of a great, common sense idea and the dedicated efforts of ordinary, inspired, grassroots volunteers. See how they're back at work this campaign season. more ...

Get a Break From High Gas Prices

Analysts say that the age of cheap oil is over. If that is the case, why would we approve an initiative that will ban the construction of rapid, electrically powered monorail anywhere in the city? more ....

Anti-Monorail Campaign Breaks Copyright

The anti-monorail forces have made another ethically questionable, if not downright illegal move. Their recently launched television commercials feature video that was stolen from a monorail supporter's website. more ...

WAMU Turns To The Dark Side

A buildthemonorail.com exclusive: It appears that another billion dollar downtown business has turned against Seattle and the monorail. more...

Anti-Monorail Campaign Gets Extreme Makeover

In the last several weeks this website has cataloged the distortions, outright lies, and right-wing agenda of the wealthy forces working against the monorail. It looks like that may have had an effect. more...

More Ethics Problems for Monorail Opponents

The anti-monorail campaign has been characterized by two things: distortions of the facts and deceit about who is actually behind their efforts. buildthemonorail.com has filed an official ethics complaint that alleges further illegal activity. more...

Monorail Winning the Endorsement Race

A surprising thing is happening so far in the campaign to save the monorail from right wing extremists. Many of the groups that opposed the monorail in 2002 are now supporting it in 2004. more...

Are Monorail Opponents Simply Anti-Transit?

Monorail opponents say that they oppose the monorail because of their distaste for taxes and elevators. Is it possible that they're also opposed to all forms of mass transit? There's some interesting new data that could answer that question. more ...

Another Recall Lie Exposed

The Seattle Times recently quoted Tim Wulf as saying that his involvement started with his registration of their website domain last year. A simple internet search has revealed that it was actually registered by the chairman of the King County Libertarian party. more...

The Truth About Selig

The monorail opposition is almost entirely funded by a single wealthy property owner. Who is Martin Selig and why does he hate the monorail? more...

Pro-monorail Campaign Launched - Funding, Volunteers Needed

The official pro-monorail campaign has started up to defend the Seattle Monorail from its attackers. It's crucial that you send them any funds you can to run the campaign and any time you can give to help win in November. more ...

What would I-83 do?

Curious about what the anti-monorail initiative would actually do? Get the facts here. more...

Don't Let Tim Eyman Style Anti-Tax Politics Kill The Monorail

Do monorail recall leaders really represent Seattle? Or are they in fact nothing more than local versions of Tim Eyman? more...

I-83 Is An Illegal Initiative

Why vote for something that will only be thrown out after the election due to it's blatant illegality? more...

Monorail Opponents Lie about "Grassroots" Campaign, Fined by Ethics Commission

Remember back in the summer when the monorail opponents such as Liv Finne were collecting signatures and claiming the work was done by their "grassroots volunteers"? Turns out it was a huge deception campaign. more...

Get the facts on the Green Line from the source

2004 Monorail Plan Is The Same as Approved in 2002

The entire premise of the anti-monorail campaign is that we should get to vote on it again because the plan has changed drastically since first approved by Seattle voters in 2002. In fact, the current green-line design is exactly as described in the original plan that formed the basis of the election 2 years ago. Here are the details:

The 2002 plan described a 14 mile monorail system that would connect Ballard, Interbay, Queen Anne, Seattle Center, the downtown retail district, Pike Place Market, the financial district, Pioneer Square, the sports stadiums, SODO, and West Seattle. The current plan shows a system that does exactly that.
We approved a system with 19 stations: 3 in Crown Hill/Ballard, 1 in Interbay, 1 on the edge of Queen Anne, 2 near Seattle Center, 1 in Belltown, 1 near Westlake Center, 1 near Pike Place market, 1 near the Federal Building, 1 in Pioneer Square, 1 near King Street Station, 1 across from Safeco Field, 1 near Starbucks Center in SODO, 1 in Delridge, and 3 in West Seattle. The current plan has 19 stations in exactly those same 19 locations as in 2002.
The 2002 campaign promised a system that would be on budget, with a $1.5 billion cap on bonding and a project price of $1.75 billion. In fact, in 2004 the Seattle monorail project has brought the project below the previous budget, with a $1.6 total cost. Try to think of other major transportation projects that have come in under budget while still covering the same distance and the same number of stations.
In 2002 we approved a system that would run trains every 4 to 8 minutes. That frequency hasn't changed in the final 2004 plan. This allows a level of service that frees people from worrying about train schedules - just show up at a station and a train will arrive in only a few minutes.
Voters were promised an automated system that had the opportunity to break even on operating costs after the first several years of operation. The Seattle Monorail Project has stuck by this, requiring a ticketing system to maximize fare collection, and automated trains to reduce operating costs.
The original monorail plan promised a peak capacity of 3,000 people per hour per direction (pphpd). The 2004 monorail plan has held to that, requiring bidders to only allow large capacity monorail trains that accomodate the 69,000 anticipated passengers per day.

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Cost of Construction by Chad Maglaque on 10/16/04	Reply
For more details, readers should review the original ETC Plan and cost estimates (see link below). The cost of construction is estimated to be far below what opponents and even the $1.5 Billion borrowing cap laid out in the ETC Plan. Even by the most conservative assumptions, the cost should be below $1.369 Billion http://archives.elevated.org/final_spmp/8-cost_financing_pgs_39-50.pdf