In 1997, Seattle voters approved a monorail transit system to be built across the city. Beginning as a cab driver’s dream and growing into a major civic project, this was on track to become one of the largest systems of its kind in the world. But shortly before breaking ground in 2005, the project collapsed in on itself. This documentary tells the story of how Seattle ended up in this unusual position, and why the city’s dream never got off the ground.
Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
4:57 – Chapter I: Thrust Forward or Fall Behind
12:56 – Chapter II: A Head-Scratching Victory
22:16 – Chapter III: Rise Above It All
28:44 – Chapter IV: A Long Way to Go
37:23 – Chapter V: The People’s Boondoggle
47:25 – Chapter VI: A Beautiful but Fatally Flawed Dream
55:51 – Epilogue
59:01 – Credits
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Dick Falkenbury’s personal account of the events can be read in his book, “Rise Above It All”
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Above-All-Dick-Falkenbury-ebook/dp/B00AF0R742/
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Would be interesting to know more about the monorail support (or lack there of) from unions and construction firms.
Also, who proposed the long-term high yield bonds that inflated the cost? Who on the board were supporting this idea, and did they have a financial incentive to do so?
What were the motives behind the myriad of city employees and board members to undo the will of the Seattle voters, repeatedly? Lower taxes? Fear of the spread of crime?
So many questions after watching this informative video!
The Simpsons ruined it.
The people in Seattle got screwed. Some people in king, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are getting rich as FK on taxpayers money. The City council and the news agencies are culpable. The just wanted and got a cut of the money for the light rail that's garbage and hardly anyone rides. Good job FKing your residents… they dont care though, they will pay any tax you ask them to because its going to help something they aren't a part of. O swear Seattle residents are the dumbest in the world!
I have lived in Seattle almost 30 years, having moved here in January 1995.
The light rail system opened in July of 2009- 15 years ago. Really, for the cost of the thing, it should be more extensive by now. Southbound, the line ends at Angle Lake, in the city of SeaTac. Northbound, it ends at Northgate but will be extended to Lynnwood August 30th.
By contrast, San Diego,where I grew up, opened their light rail system in 1981, and they didn't get any federal money. I lived there again, briefly, in 1993. In the ensuing 12 years, it went all around the city and the county,at least 30 miles of track. It has expanded even more in the last few years.
People from Seattle love to put down California- a woman once said to me that she couldn't believe I was from SD because she had never before met anyone from the city that was intelligent!
Seattle just can't seem to do anything right.
Instead they went with a he overly expensive crazy light rail with ugly overhead electrical wires while China has awesome monorails .
King county Taxed of 1.1% of value for car tags highway robbery. I pay over $1000 for vehicle tabs. Tyranny
Seattle rejected common sense decades ago.
I live about 1.5 hours away from Seattle. They leech the fuck out of everyone in the state and have tax surpluses year after year then ask for even more taxes AND still don't have this shit done. Reduce politician pay
Seattle is just sad overall. Loved riding the Mon, even in my 20s. Went to school @ UW and nearly moved there permanently. I'm so glad I didn't stay there, it's such a s*** hole now
Sad story, but at least you shut it down before it became the Monster that sky train has in Vancouver constantly expanding and destroying neighborhoods at the whims of politicians and real estate speculators😢
This channel should have millions of subscribers! At least I think so.
The Seattle Monorail is a classic example of how the high hopes, expressed desires, and support of the voting public can be thwarted over time, and the needs of the voters subverted to the fancies and dictates of the smug self-styled “elite” in office. Seattle was supposed to be the leading eco-friendly Space Age city in America but the political class misgoverning it is keeping major new investments away, its citizens behind, and succeeding only, as the world can see, in pushing itself into misery instead of increased prosperity.
A more accurate title is how Seattle accepted the Monorail 4 times and never built it.
A big point seems to be left out. There was a collective lawsuit against the city by business owners along the 5th Ave line able to prove a consistent loss in business because of the monorail. Seattle has to pay for the loss. That's why the monorail never expanded.
Seattle politicians get paid to do nothing…..i always thought the Monorail would be so cool…..and in the 90s the city government quit funding Bumbershoot and Public Access……an endless battle between the Snobs and the Slobs…..thats Seattle…..
I hear those things are awful loud…
These documentaries are great! Thank-you. If you want to find plenty of arrogance and incompetence, but no vision, look no further than politics. To paraphrase Thoreau, the only way government furthers an enterprise is by quickly getting out of the way.
It gets tiresome hearing the same reasons why the United States can’t achieve what smaller countries can. I realize the monorail was a decision at city level. It always seems to be the same knee jerk broken record of reasons. The United States has some challenges to building high-speed rail, including political will, aging infrastructure, and geography. Political will: Some say that politicians don't want to fund high-speed rail. Aging infrastructure: The US's passenger rail is hindered by aging infrastructure. For example, Amtrak's Acela, the US's only true high-speed rail service, can reach 150 mph but usually goes about half that speed due to the age of the tracks. Geography: The US is a large country, which makes it more difficult to build high-speed rail. The US is considered the world's foremost superpower, with a powerful military and a GDP of $27.97 trillion. Yet, the US is the only developed nation without a universal healthcare system. Which is why the US has the most expensive and least medically effective healthcare system in the entire develped world. The United States has tried to switch to the metric system several times but has not been able to follow through. There was the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. Instead of mandatory it was made optional instead. Or what about Metric. Many had argued that the metric system was too complicated and expensive to implement. Although, metric is still used in U.S. in many areas, including science, medicine, and some government and military sectors. My point being that bigger isn’t always better.
It's amazing what a city can aspire to be when it's not riddled with drug addicted zombies and gangster thugs.
PS – The reason federal finding went to Atlanta instead of Seattle is that Seattle/Washington politicians cared more about their own pockets and twiddled their thumbs until the moment passed and Atlanta got their act together and said "yes please."
The feds had (effectively) said, "We did a 'thing' and discovered that you 2 cities are growing fastest, and we'll match your spending on regional transit."
#$e@ttle F@!L
PPS – Seattle – the monorail (even with light rail connecting town with north and south) – is STILL an option.
#JustDoIt
PPPS – Hey. Greggers. We could have paid for that monorail extension with all this bike lanes you so, so loved – and more peeps would be a movin' and a shakin'
PPPS – Hi Joel "Dawg"! 🫂 😎
PPPPS – Hi Charlie. Only a few know that you (and the relative few who are "old money" in town – Hi McCaw – we see 👀 u) killed the monorail. Thanks – no thanks – You and Yours have it coming. Remember: What goes 'round comes 'round.
Went on the mono rail just recently with my kids and oh it was everything I ever thought it would be!! Wish it was longer
Hey, I don’t know if you would be interested in making this kind of video but I think a history of the Himalayan Blackberry’s introduction to the Pacific Northwest would be really cool in your style!
The Simpsons did an episode on a monorail. Face it, the Monorail in Seattle is and always was a tourist thing. It was more a ride than ever being considered public transportation.
Truly fascinating video. It's a real shame how when it all came together, things began to fall apart to actually make this happen. While we can only wonder what could've been, it's interesting to see that all that chaos and failures at Sound Transit made them not only more successful with building the Link Light Rail system but also making them the model for public transit projects nationwide, especially with their almost accurate estimated time of completion schedules.
Seattle has always been one step forward, two steps backwards.
Lived in western washington my entire 49 years, and think I only rode the monorail once, back in the 80's, for a school field trip, or something.
We've seen what these trains do, in every other city. It brings crime and homeless to the suburban areas, that didn't previously have a serious problem. Now the crime train pushes into lynnwood, now south snohomish County is seeing an increase in property crime, and home invasions.
The crux of the problem seems to be… this project is too big and expensive to be funded by Seattle city alone.
Sound Transit's light rail is essentially a bamboozle scheme that the whole Puget Sound region's 3 million residents pay for a Seattle-central system. That's the only way our region can pay for a project like this.
The sad thing seems to be that light rail to Ballard and West Seattle will cost 10x times more than monorail and comes decades later.
I suspect a lot of this was probably sabotaged by the auto industry behind the scenes. People wanted the monorail for years, and nothing was built. Yet, when the majority of people are rejecting a freeway, which always cost much more, it gets built anyways no matter how many neighborhoods it bulldozes.
7:42 – This is what a BART train should look like. [train's ends]
It's too bad that the monorail didn't get funding and expand; just think of how easy it would have been in 2020 for Antifa & SBLM thugs to get to and from the riots!!
Moved to Seattle 2 years ago and still can’t take rail to work (I work on the east side). Maybe next year… in the mean time, King Stroad aka 99 aka Aurora Ave has dedicated bus/right turn only lanes.
Coincidentally my wife is Japanese and I absolutely love the Tokyo rail system.
wow. this is so embarrassing. We could've had a Seattle BART!?
Beautifully done film. Well done to the author! Ultimately, it is a sad story of too many wrongs creating a proper mess.
You could tell from all the fighting that it was killed by the political powers that be. This city and State has a history of going against the voters wishes. We would vote for something or against and the politicians would push it through or kill it anyways. "We know what is best for you, so shut up and sit down."
Extremely interesting – many thanks.
11:35 That dinky little toy-looking train that Vancouver launched in 1985 has surpassed the ridership of all legacy systems in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and is now the fourth busiest rapid transit network in North America after NYC, Toronto and Montreal.
40 years. jesus christ. I swear it would be a great benefit to mankind when bureaucracy gets yeeted to outer space and gets replaced by ai. Even at current level of chat gpt 4 it would be better than most politicians
I was a supporter for the monorail specially the line going from Ballard to West Seattle. This line would have cut the rush hour traffic, bottle neck from the west Seattle bridge and the merging onto I-5. As well as giving more options for those who live in Ballard and cut down the traffic to 15th Ave nw.
This video was Well Done! Top Notch
The Seattle monorail is like a half broken car but it has sentimental value so it’s not broken enough to be replaced.
Referencing @maxliu1099’s comment in moonkitti’s (warrior cats content creator) not orange vid because it worked here too.