Seattle Center Monorail - a Photo
Essay
Page Six
another Monorail Society
Exclusive!
Seattle Center Monorail General Manager Glenn Barney holds up
original German-drawn ALWEG blueprints.
Copies have been made of the many ALWEG
prints and they are still referred to for maintenance on the original
trains. Glenn really made my eyebrows raise when he suggested
that new trains could EASILY be fabricated and an entire
system could be built from these blueprints. He notes
that Seattle has many capable industries that would be able to
it. I think this of great importance to anyone planning this type
of monorail. Planners DO NOT necessarily need to be locked into
using current suppliers of monorail trains. Look, if Monorail
Malaysia can do it with a bus manufacturer...others can do it
too. Monorail Malaysia is saving Kuala Lumpur millions of dollars
doing it this way. Glenn says he knows where to get the parts!
As my visit was coming to a close, I enjoyed both the monorail
on a rainy Seattle day and a fabulous headline on the front page
of a local newspaper, "Monorail expansion gets a lift."
Those big barriers at the end of the line may not be the end of
the line for a Seattle Monorail System of the future.
Driving home I had ticket proof on my dashboard that I had indeed
helped maintain the profitability of the Seattle Monorail. My
sincere thanks to Tom Albro, Glenn Barney, Traci Springer and
the other folks of Seattle Center Monorail for the kindness they
extended to me on my visit. I'm still trying to figure out how
to get that Class B drivers license guys!
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