Failed Moronorail already wants to expand

Sound Transit, the financial disaster / light rail agency, at least has enough sense to "just say no" to adding Moronorail to its boondoggle empire.

When and if it expands, Sound Transit should stick with light rail, commuter rail and buses, and forget about monorail, the agency's planners said yesterday.

But the Seattle Moronorail Project, which is barely hanging on for its life as it is, won't take no as an answer:

Cleve Stockmeyer, a member of the Seattle Monorail Project board and chairman of Citizens for King County Monorail, said taking monorail off the table now would be premature.

"We're not saying, 'Do monorail.' We're just saying, 'Study it,' " Stockmeyer said.

It's been studied to death, Monoman:

[State Transportation Secretary Doug] MacDonald is no fan of monorail technology for a transportation system.

Around the world, cities have shunned monorail as a system, although some use it as a short point-to-point line, he said. Its switching technology is inferior to rail's. It is a proprietary technology, meaning a transit system will be stuck with the same technology from a single company for future expansion, he said.

I recently had an oddly disturbing conversation with Stockmeyer, which I wrote about here.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 25, 2004 10:59 AM