Free Republic

t will cost more than $11 billion to pay for the 14-mile monorail Green Line project and the debt to finance it, according to documents made public yesterday. That's more than triple what Sound Transit will pay for construction and debt service for its 14-mile light rail line from downtown Seattle to Tukwila. The total also is more than five times the construction tab alone for the monorail, a ratio that troubles state Treasurer Mike Murphy. "You've got to be kidding me," Murphy said yesterday. "That's ludicrous." He said the typical principal and interest payments on a state project amount...

Fire On The Seattle Monorail May 31, 2004 By KOMO Staff SEATTLE - A fire broke out on the Seattle Center Monorail late Monday evening. Smoke was pouring out of the southbound blue monorail as it was just on the south side of the Experience Music Project at 5:22 p.m. Fire crews were able to successfully evacuate all of the passengers and the fire was reported under control around 5:30 p.m. Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Helen Fitzpatrick says the monorail was full at the time of the fire. They checked out about 40 people on the ground for injuries and...

The tracks under the world’s first commercial magnetic-levitation train are sinking, possibly threatening the £750 million Chinese project, a newspaper reported in Shanghai today. The 270 mph “maglev” began regular operation this year, linking Shanghai’s new international airport with its eastern financial district. “We have been aware of the sinking of our maglev track,” Xia Guozhong, a spokesman for the company running the project, said. The Shanghai Daily gave no details of the sinking and it was not clear how it would affect operations. The tracks are sinking “very slightly,” said Xia. A spokeswoman for the Shanghai city government said...