Cash crunch or not, Seattle Monorail Project's (SMP) tourist trains appear sacrosanct.

Equipped with flat-screen televisions, movies, speakers, restrooms and chairs that face the windows, they would cost more to build than standard train cars.

But the SMP is eyeing tourist dollars to help it break even on operating costs by 2020, without a tax subsidy. Not only is that deadline a legal mandate of the voter-approved monorail plan, the agency intends to make it a contractual pledge to the future buyers of $1.5 billion in bonds.

Last night, Executive Director Joel Horn discussed his vision for making the monorail capture its share of the city's tourist trade. The monorail couldn't break even on commuter rides alone, he told the agency's governing board.

Meanwhile, the agency needs to trim $200 million from the proposal made Aug. 16 by the Cascadia Monorail Co. for tracks and trains, sources said this week.

And Cascadia is preparing to give SMP its final offer soon, Patrick Kylen, the team's political specialist, said yesterday.

Kylen wouldn't comment last night about how many tourist trains the team will offer. Tourist trains have taken up considerable time in the closed-door negotiations, Cascadia executive Six Silva has said.

SMP wants to offer both a "tourist train" for visitors and a "celebration train" with catered food for parties or conventioneers. There would be a monorail visitors center and gift shop.

Horn compared the monorail to eye-popping figures from existing attractions: Tourists spend $13 to ascend the Space Needle and $17 to $32 on a harbor cruise. He provided no details last night on what the monorail might charge.

Board member Richard Stevenson said specialty trains are every bit as important as advertising.

Dick Falkenbury, the tour-bus driver who started the monorail movement a decade ago, said the business model is flawed because tourists could ride an ordinary monorail for a couple bucks.

And opponent Richard Borkowski blistered Horn for not providing hard numbers yet on tourist train revenues — or how the agency will break even because virtually all U.S. transit requires operating subsidies.

"No transit agency ever will break even if no one tries," Horn told him afterward.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com.