Seattle Axes Monorail Project 524
Sokie writes "This afternoon the Seattle City Council passed a resolution advocating the terminiation of the Seattle Monorail Project. This follows a recent recommendation by the mayor that the project be scrapped. Lacking city support, the project looks to be dead and the city council will request that the state legislature formally terminate the project during their next session. City councilman Richard Conlin noted that the $1 million per week tax collection required by the SMP would be enough to eliminate fares on the city's bus network."
Monorail! (Score:3, Funny)
Monorail... (Score:5, Funny)
OB: Simpson's (Score:3, Funny)
I told them already it's more of a Shelbyville idea!
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Monorail... (Score:3, Funny)
Was there a chance the track could bend?
Re:Monorail... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pressure from oil interests? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:new alternatives - Yes (Score:2, Funny)
While it may be a bit more expensive than other options, it is faster, cleaner, and takes up much less room (about the size of a telephone-booth, usually) than buses, trains, etc. Truly the 'technology-freak' solution to the traffic problem...
Sadly, no one wants to back the project
Re:they dont make money... (Score:3, Funny)
I was in Las Vegas a few months ago and used the monorail to travel up and down the strip.
The monorail is about a half-block away from the strip. To get to a station, you have to navigate through the casinos and shops, which are designed to impede your progress (so you'll gamble or spend money). We stayed at the Venetian, which doesn't have it's own monorail station. It took about 20-25 minutes to walk from our room, out to the strip, and back through Harrah's to the monorail.
If you are on the side of the strip opposite the monorail, you have to cross the street first, which is not always a simple task. There are a couple of privately operated trains on the side opposite the monorail that may be a better choice.
North of Harrah's, the monorail actually diverts AWAY from the strip to the Las Vegas Hilton and the convention center, then goes back to the north end of the strip at the Sahara. The casinos in that "dead zone" are older ones -- it's interesting to see that property is already being acquired for redevelopment around the Sahara and Stratosphere.
The one time that we depended on getting to the MGM Grand to see a show, the monorail has just stopped running. Fortunately, we were able to get into the line for a cab before everyone else discovered the same problem, but we just barely made it in time. If it's not dependable, people will quickly switch to alternatives after making the walk all the way to the monorail station, only to find it isn't running.
I think the plan was to extend the monorail to the airport and to downtown. Given the difficulty of getting from the monorail station to hotels not directly on the line, I think an airport link will not be used much. It would probably help the downtown casinos, though.
Re:OB: Simpson's (Score:5, Funny)
from the more-of-a-shelbyville-kind-of-idea dept.
Re:Liberal slashdot logic (Score:1, Funny)
What Seattle needs is solutions based on theological regressive thinking. Yes folks, Elijah was carried away on Chariots of Fire, so why shouldn't the good people of Seatle? Of course, if any of the anal-sex loving Jews that I hear run Hollywood should be visiting their abortionists in Seattle the Chariots would burn them in the manner best fitting the depraved purveyors of seclibprogvo.
Yes, it's good that you are challenging this absurdly wasteful scheme. Perhaps Seattle council members will read your Slashdot comment and will do something sensible, like giving one of the KBR companies a few billion to build roads without a tender.
I salute you, my seclibprogvo defying friend!
Re:Monorail! (Score:2, Funny)
Don't worry, that's been fixed in the last couple of weeks. Now you'll probably spend more on gas.