Month: July 2025

Seattle’s two-station monorail (a world record!), reportedly self-sustaining and extremely popular among tourists despite being arguably the city’s most pointless form of transportation, features the same Alweg trains that have been in operation since its inauguration 63 years ago for the World Fair.

Interestingly, even the one-station monorail has a driver. I recently saw a job posting for a Monorail Driver, paying $20/hour (with a minimum wage of $18.67). Roughly the same hourly rate can be earned by stocking shelves in any supermarket in the USA.

However, the only major accident on the Seattle monorail in 2005 was due to a driver’s error. According to authorities, the driver of a train heading into the city failed to yield to another train at a spot where the tracks are too close together for simultaneous passage.

The problem was that the tracks were installed without the gap necessary for the free passage of trains. Imagine that! At one spot, just so:) This was deliberately designed to allow loading ramps to extend beyond the carriages. For 40 years, careful attention ensured that trains never traveled simultaneously on this section. But then one day, a driver decided to leave early — and the rest is history. As always, Murphy’s Law applies.

Nearby in 1988, the construction of the Westlake Center mall uncovered an issue just days before its scheduled opening. Engineers found the west track was two inches (50 mm) closer to the platform and building than it should have been, making it impossible to use. The issue came to light when a retractable loading ramp at the terminal scratched the blue train during a trial run; the misalignment was caused by a pin in a hinge that did not fold properly. The ramp was repaired in November, but other technical issues and prolonged safety inspections delayed the new terminal’s opening by four months. To avoid redesign, trains were simply not allowed to run simultaneously. As of 2025, bi-directional movement is still NOT anticipated above the narrow gauge section at the southern (Westlake) station:-)

By the way, exactly a month ago, the monorail at VDNKh in Moscow, opened 21 years ago, was permanently closed. There, too, nobody understood its purpose, and moreover, it was brutally unprofitable.

In the photo, Nadia enjoys Seattle