New company hopes to expand Monorail in Seattle

It’s been more than five years since the last attempt to
expand the Monorail, but a new company is hoping to
promote the effort once again.

The newly-created Century Transportation Company has
launched a campaign to create a public transportation
authority to build a 16-mile system running from Ballard
to West Seattle, but voters have to approve the plan.
About 3,600 signatures are needed to authorize a public
vote.

As Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn looks for ways to improve one
of the worst public transit cities in America, the Century
Transportation Company hopes the Monorail is a viable part
of the plan.

“The mayor’s office is rushing ahead with street car
systems, Sound Transit and the city of Seattle are getting
together to do some planning for high-capacity transit,
and we just want to be sure that Monorail is on the ground
floor with these plans,” Century Transportation Company
director Elizabeth Campbell told 97.3 KIRO FM on Sunday.

Campbell added she hopes federal funds that Sound Transit
has for high-capacity transit is used toward the Monorail.

The Seattle Monorail Project was a proposed five-line
monorail system that failed due to insurmountable
political pressure in 2005. The project consumed $124.7
million in taxpayer funds without having begun
construction on the monorail.

The Century Transportation Company hopes to get enough
signatures on the petition to authorize a public vote in
order to spur the initial funding for the planning,
design, and engineering of the proposed new system.