Seattle Center Monorail
Encyclopedia
Monorail
A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...
line in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, that runs a little over one mile along Fifth Avenue from Westlake Center
Westlake Center
Westlake Center is a four-story shopping center and twenty-five story office tower in Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. The southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail, it is located across Pine Street from Westlake Park, between 4th and 5th Avenues. It is named for Westlake Avenue, which now...
in Downtown to Seattle Center
Seattle Center
Seattle Center is a park and arts and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington. The campus is the site used in 1962 by the Century 21 Exposition. It is located just north of Belltown in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.-Attractions:...
in Lower Queen Anne. It claims to be the "only fully self-sufficient public transit system" in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and with a top speed of 45 mph (72.4 km/h), to also be the fastest full-sized monorail in the country, although the Las Vegas Monorail
Las Vegas Monorail
The Las Vegas Monorail is a monorail mass transit system located on the Las Vegas Strip, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It connects the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester, and does not actually enter the City of Las Vegas. It is owned and operated by the Las Vegas...
has a similar speed. Owned by the City of Seattle, the line has been operated by a private contractor, Seattle Monorail Services, since 1994. The monorail trains and their tracks were given historical landmark status by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board April 16, 2003.
Creation and route
The monorail, which cost $3.5 million to build, opened on March 24, 1962 for the Century 21 ExpositionCentury 21 Exposition
The Century 21 Exposition was a World's Fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962 in Seattle, Washington.Nearly 10 million people attended the fair...
, a World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
being held at the current site of Seattle Center. Eight million people rode the monorail during the half year the fair was open; today, annual ridership is around 2.5 million. The line and its trains were built by Alweg Rapid Transit Systems
ALWEG
Alweg was a transportation company known for pioneering straddle-beam monorails.-History:Alweg was founded by Swedish industrial magnate Dr. Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren in January 1953 as Alweg-Forschung, GmbH , based in Fühlingen, Germany, a suburb of Cologne...
, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
company.
Originally, the south end of the line was a large station over Pine Street at Westlake Avenue that formed a lid over the street and a portion of Westlake Park
Westlake Park (Seattle)
Westlake Park is a public plaza in downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. Extending east from 4th Avenue up to and including a former portion of Westlake Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, it is across Pine Street from the Westlake Center shopping mall, which is the southern terminus of the Seattle...
. In 1988, the station was moved north a block with the construction of the Westlake Center shopping mall on what had been the right-of-way of Westlake Avenue.
The Westlake station of the monorail has an elevator down to the Westlake Station of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, a stop for the Central Link light rail line, and major Metro bus lines. Westlake Center is also near the southern terminus of the South Lake Union Streetcar
South Lake Union Streetcar
The Seattle Streetcar—South Lake Union Line is a streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to Downtown Seattle, United States. Service began on December 12, 2007...
and numerous surface bus routes.
At the northern end of the line, the Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project
The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...
building was designed so that the monorail passes through it on its way to the terminal.
Operations
The Seattle Center Monorail is operated by a private contractor, Seattle Monorail Services (SMS), which took over operation from the City in June 1994. Operating profits, which can be as much as $750,000 per year in a good year, are split between the City and SMS.Service operates daily. Trains depart every 10 minutes from the station at Seattle Center en route to Westlake Center Mall, at Fifth and Pine Street. Each trip takes two minutes to cover the approximately one-mile route. Each train can carry up to 450 passengers per trip. The monorail provides two-train service during special events and activities, with departures every five minutes or less.
Round-trip fares are $4.00 for adults, $1.50 for youth ages 5–12, $2.00 for senior 65+, disabled (with valid Regional Reduced Fare Permit), and persons with Medicare cards. One-way fares are half of the round-trip price. Children four and under ride free.
Technical details
The fleet consists of two trains, one on each of the two parallel tracks. They are the original AlwegALWEG
Alweg was a transportation company known for pioneering straddle-beam monorails.-History:Alweg was founded by Swedish industrial magnate Dr. Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren in January 1953 as Alweg-Forschung, GmbH , based in Fühlingen, Germany, a suburb of Cologne...
trains, which have served the line ever since its opening in 1962, and were built in 1961.
Each train is powered by four 750 Hp DC Motors running at 700V. They typically draw up to 700 amps. The motors are controlled by a mechanical motor controller that adjusts the position of the motors and number of resistors in the circuit. The motors run into a standard truck differential, with one side blocked off and the other running to the driving wheel, which runs a standard truck tire.
The electric current is drawn from a two-tiered electric rail that is aligned with the side of the track. The top rail is earth, with the live rail suspended beneath it.
The monorail uses dynamic braking
Dynamic braking
Dynamic braking is the use of the electric traction motors of a railroad vehicle as generators when slowing the Locomotive. It is termed rheostatic if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid resistors, and regenerative if the power is returned to the supply line...
for higher speed braking (over 10 mph), and has drum brake
Drum brake
A drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....
s for lower speeds.
Accidents
On May 31, 2004, a fire broke out on the monorail with 150 people aboard. Five passengers were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
On November 26, 2005, the two trains clipped one another on a curve, shearing a door off one train. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries. Poor design and driver error were blamed for the crash; in 1988, the space between the monorail tracks had been reduced at the southern end of the line to make room for the new Westlake Center
Westlake Center
Westlake Center is a four-story shopping center and twenty-five story office tower in Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. The southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail, it is located across Pine Street from Westlake Park, between 4th and 5th Avenues. It is named for Westlake Avenue, which now...
, effectively making gauntlet/interlaced track.
See also
- List of monorail systems
- Seattle Monorail Project (now defunct plan for a new Seattle monorail)