Seattle's stalled monorail worn out, report says

The Seattle Center Monorail, built for the 1962 World's Fair and out of service since stalling out twice this summer, "is at or near the end of its useful service life," according to a report by a national consulting firm.

If the service does restart, the firm has recommended that no more than 200 passengers ride a train at any one time — about half of the capacity.

The report, by Booz Allen Hamilton, says reducing the number of riders not only will help ensure the trains' performance, but will improve the performance of individual systems due for overhaul. Systems found to be involved in one of the two stalls this summer are all affected by weight and the number of passengers on board, the consultants said.

The report, which cost about $100,000, will be presented to the City Council on Monday as part of its debate over whether to support Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal to issue $4.5 million in bonds for major repairs so the monorail can operate reliably. Nickels included the request in his budget, which the council is expected to vote on within a few weeks.

The consultants' recommendations for shorter-term repairs have already been completed, said Tom Albro, executive director of Seattle Monorail Services, which runs the city-owned system that runs between Westlake Center and Seattle Center.

The company is now testing the trains, and Albro couldn't say when they may reopen to passengers.

He said consultants recommended a realignment of the power distribution and collection system for the trains to improve their performance.

A stall Aug. 13 resulted from a surge in power, Albro has said.

The Aug. 19 stall, which prompted the expert review, was much harder to diagnose.

Albro said the train stalled when the collector assemblies, which provide power to the trains, were not able to stay in contact with the power rail the trains run on. He compared it to a Metro trolley bus losing contact with its overhead power lines.

Albro said the collector assemblies are the original ones from 1962 and the company doesn't have the original designs, making them more difficult to fix.

"What we've done is tuned up an old system scheduled for replacement," he said, comparing the work that's been done to "patching the roof."

City officials had been warned in a 1999 city audit that the trains were already well beyond their expected lifespan of 30 years.

Booz Allen Hamilton is the same company that helped troubleshoot the Las Vegas Monorail after it malfunctioned during startup two years ago.

In its analysis of the Seattle Monorail, the consultants tried to replicate the load when the car stalled, using the amount of weight equivalent to 112 passengers, or 17,000 pounds.

During the test the Blue train was driven by the same driver who was at the controls when the train stalled.

The train sputtered as it was trying to get out of the Seattle Center station and an inspection showed the power collectors were not in continuous contact with the power rail when moving out of the station.

The next step was to evaluate the four cars of the Blue train when it stalled in the Denny Way curve. With no test weight on two of the four cars, the train was operable, but when stopped in the curve, not only did the loaded cars lose contact with the power rail, but the empty cars did as well. All four cars rolled to the left.

Albro could not say how much the repairs cost the Seattle Monorail, but called it "minimal." Most of the expense, he said, was diagnosing the problem that cause the train to stall.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com