Vote To Get The Monorail Back On Track

This week the Seattle Monorail Project announced new finance numbers regarding the long term cost of the Monorail, and the new numbers are a huge reduction of the price tag that sent everyone into panic mode last summer.

After trimming the line down from the original 14 miles to a 10 mile route, the SMP has projected the long term cost savings will be $6.5 billion. Instead of an estimate of $11.4 billion over a 48 year span, the new route is expected to cost only $4.9 billion over a 38 year period.

You may recall that last June, when the original projections were released, the SMP came under fire for the high long term cost of the project. One of the discussion points revolved around the "debt service ratio" - the ratio of the total debt service costs vs. the project costs.

The SMP issued information about how the Monorail project's numbers compared to other transportation projects. The $11.4 billion long term cost, vs. the then $1.94 billion project cost equated to a debt service ratio of 5+. The ratios for other projects sited were, 4.5 for the Las Vegas Monorail, 5.5 for Chicago Metropolitan Pier and Expo Authority, and 2.5 for the JFK International Arrivals Terminal.

The new numbers reduce the debt service ration to about 2.5 with a lowered project cost of $1.7 billion.

The Monorail's new proposed shortened route is on the November ballot, and Seattleites are being asked to vote a fifth time for or against the project. Four times in the past they have chosen to support the project. Although, one can no longer rule out the possibility of future ballot measures regarding the Monorail, this vote certainly is a huge one.

If voters choose to support the new plan, the prospect of the project breaking ground in the near future is very real. If voters reject the plan, it is highly likely the entire project will be dead.

And given how far this process has come, and how close we are to achieving the beginning of a real transit service that ties north Seattle to West Seattle, without the concerns of ground traffic, it would be a huge tragedy if this project were to stumble at the finish line. Requiring that any project survive four votes is a tall order, let alone five, and the Monorail project has already defied the odds getting this far.

Yes, the original long term cost was very high - no doubt about it. However, the Monorail board tried hard to stay within the confines of the original plan that was approved by voters. They didn't want to reduce the length of the initial line, and didn't want to alter their sole tax funding source, the %1.4 Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET). Back in June I wrote:

The tax should be raised, or supplemented in some way, and/or the line should be shortened, and the public should be allowed to decide which of those options are acceptable.

The Monorail board was reluctant to do any of these things, but found they had little choice when faced by the political reality of the loss of support from Mayor Nickels and the Seattle City Council. They finally produced a new plan, with a shorter route, and produced the ballot measure now before Seattle voters.

In June I stated:

This is the people's project after all, so it is time for the people to get back involved and help remove some of the limitations that have tied the hands of the project planners. This is important work that deserves our continued, but reasoned, commitment.

Now that the new plan is back again before voters, there is a great opportunity to put a final stamp of approval on the project so that within a few years we can finally have a world class transit option available to bypass the growing Seattle traffic. The prospect of a Monorail system combined with the Sound Transit light rail line would mean that Seattleites would finally have a way to get around the city without getting stuck in road traffic - what a novelty that would be in this town!

This has not been an easy process, as these things usually never are, but the Monorail project has received four thumbs up since its inception, and deserves our continued support with this (hopefully) final vote.

Vote in support of the new Monorail project. Vote "Yes" on Proposition 1!