Monorail trains collide in Seattle

UPI ^ | 11/27/2005

[ncountylee]

SEATTLE, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Two trains on Seattle's monorail collided Saturday night, injuring at least two people and sending glass flying onto the street.

The accident could put the system out of service until next year, the Seattle Times reported Sunday.

There were no serious injuries, but two people were taken to the hospital to be checked out, a Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman said.

The trains scraped against each another on the elevated tracks near Fifth Avenue and Olive Way -- an area where the tracks start to converge as they approach the station at Westlake Center.

The monorail's general manager, Glenn Barney, said the risk of a collision was clear to anybody who looked at the converging tracks, the newspaper said.

Barney anticipated the line would be closes at least until New Year's for an investigation into the cause of the accident and to make repairs. The monorail has no spare trains.

[ncountylee]

Taxpayers save when it's not running?

[Boazo]

[StACase]

Two trains on Seattle's monorail collided Saturday night, injuring at least two people and sending glass flying onto the street.

Hmmmm, so how many people were riding the thing when this happened? Two?

[al baby]

Yeah but theres a class action suit underway with 100 of victims already

[cgbg]

The New York Giants and Payton Manning are coming to town. Perhaps this is an omen. :-)

[rellimpank]

--The trains scraped against each another--

That looks like a heavy duty "scrape" --and it seems like pretty dumb design if the tracks allow a "scrape"---???

[Right Wing Assault]

Meanwhile, two buses in Iowa scraped against each other. Police say the road will be open in 15 minutes.

[Right Wing Assault]

no spare trains

The whole monorail only has 2 trains and no spares? What a joke. I wonder how much each rider REALLY costs?

[NaughtiusMaximus]

The City ought to be legally required to provide special safety helmets for use on monorail public transportation.

Such a requirement would provide a nice opportunity for a fat profit at the liberal taxpayers' expense plus it would be lots of fun to design hilarious "safety" helmets.

My personal preference is to do something creative involving antennas. Put little pompoms on their tips for panache.

It would be fun to sip a Starbucks and watch the Denizens of the Future riding their monorails around Seattle. That would be worth seeing. The Seattle tourist bureau ought to get behind this one.

[Boazo]

Here's a sporty model

[conservative in nyc]

The Seattle monorail doesn't go very far - one mile, from Westlake Center (a mall in downtown) to the Seattle Center (a park, which is home to the Space Needle, Key Arena and Experience Music Project). It was built for the World's Fair in 1962.

I think there were plans to extend it, which fell through the cracks. Perhaps Willie Green remembers more about that.

[webboy45]

The question is: why now? The monorail has been running for 45 years and now the trains scrape each other. Did they increase the speed, is it wear on the track, or did someone misalign something?

[1rudeboy]

Were they on the same track? [bad humor]

[conservative in nyc]

Hmmmm, so how many people were riding the thing when this happened? Two?

84, according to the Seattle Times.

Here's a picture:

[Psycho_Bunny]

This is the view from my apartment:

And I heard what sounded like every fire engine in Seattle converging somewhere last night.

But I had no idea the collision happened until I read this thread this morning.

lol

[Willie Green]

I think there were plans to extend it, which fell through the cracks. Perhaps Willie Green remembers more about that.

It was just a couple months ago.
Seattle City Council nixes monorail

[conservative in nyc]

The Seattle Times article answers that. The monorail was slightly shortened and the tracks were realigned in the late 1980s when the Westlake Center was built. The new station at Westlake Center was designed to be in the mall, and the outer track had to be close enough to the mall so that a movable platform could be extended across the inner track for boarding. Two trains can't be in the Westlake Center station at once.

The article also says that they usually only run one train, except in times of peak demand. And there's a protocol about how to operate along the stretch where the accident occurred when two trains are running. It's unclear if the protocol was followed.

[flashbunny]

[wyattearp]

I just looked out my window. I can see the trains, still stuck on the track. I was wondering what all of the sirens were about last night. LOL.