October 25, 2005
Stop the Insanity
A financial consultant hired by the Seattle City Council has confirmed that the Monorail's latest plan is little more than an insane hallucination:
The Seattle Monorail Project's assumptions about its fares, ridership and revenue from car-tab taxes are uncertain enough that they pose financial risks to the public, according to a city consultant's report issued Monday.
Now, more than ever, is the time to Stop the Seattle Monorail Project --
stopsmp.org.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 25, 2005
10:27 AM | Email This
1. As always--- "Follow the money."
Who's making money by keeping the Monorail Project alive? Who benefits?
Stop them from collecting money from the project and it will stop the project.
2. Politicians are often a lot like celebrities. Some how they feel that their mandate by the people makes them an expert authority on all sorts of subjects: business, economics, science, finance, world affairs, etc. Instead of relying on the real experts, they chart a course into unknown waters hoping the rest of us will drink the kool aid and follow along. Unfortunately, all to often they get away with it – human impact on global warming, the World Bank, It Takes a Village, Communism, King County Elections – all brought to you by the “intellectual elite”. Occasionally, the harsh light of reality is cast upon their work but it’s twice has difficult to derail (pun intended) when the kool aid drinkers can’t be bothered with facts and reality.
3. Why am I nervous that gluttons-for-punishment Seattle voters will, yet again, do something incredibly stupid? Please, someone, alleviate my concerns. Here are the results of a recent poll that show the measure to build the monorail going down 58% to 39%, with 3% undecided. There's no chance this is gonna pass, right? Right?
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=f9d32d47-295d-4bee-89d0-306e404b4a91&c=28
4. Come on petec! That isn't that many ballots that need to be made up. Anyway, to close that gap it will give Simms a big win so those slimey Reps can't claim anything looks a bit off in the results. 120% of the electorate turning out - no problem! The throne has been kept in the safe, sane, and 'Knows what is best for you' Dems!
5. INSANE HALLUCINATIONS?....THATS RIGHT YOU MUST BE TALKING ABOUT KEVIN PHELPS. KEVIN PHELPS THE "EX-MAYOR OF TACOMA" IS AFTER ALL SAVING THE MON-RAIL FOR ALL US GOOD "LITTLE" TAX PAYERS.
6. "Who's making money by keeping the Monorail Project alive? Who benefits?"
The two law firms that have the legal concession: Foster Pepper and Preston Gates.
petec: I hope I don't have to eat my words here, but Seattle voters seem to be waking up. Prediction: I-912 and I-900 both will do well in Seattle, and there will be a no vote on the monorail proposition 1. Bear in mind, at this point SMP looks like a train wreck from pretty much any angle you choose.
7. Stefan: I have it on good authority when you park at the Sea-Tac monorail terminus, the one being built on your right as you enter the airport exit; you will not be allowed to park your car there overnight. This is being covered up by worthless monorail people. Why build a terminus if you are not allowed to park your car there overnight. Tukwila asked for a 5000 car garage. Monorail people said no. They asked for a 1300+ car park, they said no too. Ask around Stefan.
8. Liberals are into 'expert' worship.
9. At this rate our grandchildren will still be trying to stop this MonoMare, and still getting taxed for it. Enough already.
10. Puddybud: The monorail does not go to the airport. Sound Transit's light rail does.
11. The most frustrating part of this for me is that everything runs together in most people's minds. I-912, Sound Transit, Metro, Monorail - as far as many people are concerned, they're all simply interchangeable. It's especially frustrating because some of them are really useful - the bus lines take tens of thousands of car trips a day off the roads.
Maybe they're not as efficient as they could be - it would be nice if our transit between major hubs were fast enough or reliable enough to get people interested in riding it. That's what rail is for. Sounder is building a new major commuter link to Seattle for not only Tacoma, but Puyallup, Sumner, Auburn and Kent, not to mention the future expansion to Lakewood. As people get used to a permanent transit fixture, ridership increases steadily - and it's doing so.
This $400/seat nonsense doesn't help anyone. Do you measure highway capacity by dollars per trip in the first few years of operation? How about the cost of your car in the first three months you own it? That $400 bought all the cars and locomotives, upgraded the track, and built stations. It's benefited freight transport, long distance passenger rail, and congestion on valley highways. The infrastructure it's developing will be around for many decades, and will benefit many different users.
The same tends to be true with most transit systems. The monorail is clearly a boondoggle, but light rail connects downtown and the airport, and provides permanent service to south Seattle that could help increase density and livability for those areas.
12. Okay Ben, I misspoke. What about the Sound Transit light rail terminus. Will you be able to park over night there?
13. Yes. The terminus will be at S. 200th St, rather than the airport, so that Sound Transit can have a park and ride there.
14. Ben S: For all you light rialoholics-Portland light rail is a moonbat heaven. The airport/downtown line is virtually empty 24/7. A very nice N/S arterial, Interstate Ave, was wrecked with a light rail line no one rides. All the other lines are empty 21 hrs/day. Us federal taxpayers cough up $25/rider. Its a pathetic joke. And you loons in Seattle want to duplicate utter failure. Rubber room for you, pal.....
15. THS:
First, your numbers. The airport line was pretty full when I rode it two weeks ago - I counted 32 riders all the way at the end of the line, and it was standing room only all the way to Gateway. And MAX operation costs $1.51 per boarding, not $25:
http://www.trimet.org/inside/rankings.htm
Sure, it may have cost more to build, but I bet you don't take that into account when you consider the cost of interstates.
Yellow line is empty because it's not done yet - it's waiting on Clark County for extension to Vancouver - and it's BRAND NEW. You can't put in infrastructure and expect it to be utilized the next day - it's permanent. Businesses are already beginning to develop nearby it.
I want to duplicate the most cost-efficient rail transit system in the US.
16. Ben, you didn't answer my question. Can you park you car overnight at the terminus? My sources say absolutely not. Answer the question man!
17. Ben -- Sound Transit fan, are you? That is a primo example of a dishonest transportation agency. Among other things, it promised the voters that it wanted to tax that it would build a light rail line that would be operational in 2006 from the U-District to SeaTac Airport. It also promised those voters the cost of ALL its projects would be $3.9B (it whistled through that mark years ago). No big deal to Ben that Sound Transit did not live up to its committments but continues to tax sales and car tabs and the people taxed have no recourse.
18. I don't know why I want to bother trying to set the record straight in this forum, Stefan... but I will point out a couple of obvious flaws in this consultant report.
The most obvious is that the report is based on a proposed finance plan from the summer (the infamous $11B one) which was never approved by the agency, never formally submitted to the Coty for review, and bears little relation to the recently approved plan which would attach to the proposal on the ballot.
Among the more ridiculous assertions the consultants make is the one that the monorail cannot possibly cover operations with its revenues because its plan does not have enough non-farebox revenue to balance out the revenue from fares. The data it uses to back up this point is the so-called "Explorer Pass" to be sold to tourists.
Now the pass idea may be as silly as Joel Horn's "tourist train" idea was, but any citizen walking down the street can see that the Seattle Center Monorail overhead and Metro buses rumbling by all have ads on the outside. And you could put ads inside trains. And in stations. And on backs of tickets. Raising millions of dollars a year. That also doesn't include monorail merchandise like T-shirts or hats. Ever seen someone wearing clothing for the New York subway or London Underground.
Oppose the monorail all you want, but this consultant report was nothing but a sham in clear violation of election rules.
19. When will they kill this project once and for all?
The only people for it are the ones profiteering off the people!
20. "Oppose the monorail all you want, but this consultant report was nothing but a sham in clear violation of election rules."
Along with everything else associated with this mono-boondoggle!
21. Ben, still waiting for the answer to my question above.
22. Ben, your lack of a response proves your Sound Transit friends have told you to ignore my question. It's been three days and you will not answer, so my information must be correct. You will not be able to park overnight at the Seattle Airport terminus.
23. Let me know when the Monorail dies finally!
24. I will say this. I hate the monorail with a passion that grows every year when I renew my tabs and there is nothing available to show for except my bs tax which is also unfairly calculated on a MSRP that never really drops. I think the mayor was right to pull the plug. Those idiots at the SMP should be set out on the street for a public stoning. I would rather see a hi speed subway system. For all they ridicule the Russians in being backwards, they have an amazing metro system of hi speed trains and it is cheap. Buses stink and they are not efficient, especially in the city. I think light rail is not enough, too slow. But I prefer it over a monorail that does not move people where it should. Who the hell goes from west seattle to ballard? Old folks on the way to the doctor? I already voted to kill it. I hope this time it finally dies. Anyone know if it does if the tab tax will stop immediately?