A note about media coverage of the anniversary
re.: February 2012 issue of "SeattleMet" magazine
The February 2012 issue of the Seattle magazine "SeattleMet" is a special issue for the 50th Seattle World's Fair anniversary and it includes on page 60 a short note about the campaign for the Green Line (a monorail rapid transit line project for Seattle that initially had the support of Seattle voters, but that was in the end rejected). This note in this "SeattleMet" anniversary issue contains a quote by the author of this website (it is the following single sentence: " 'Maybe they grew up with parents who disliked this monorail intrusion upon Fifth Avenue back in 1962,' says German Alweg expert Reinhard Krischer, whose mechanical engineer father was one of three to build Seattle's monorail." ) The note ends with the sentence: "University of Washington historian John Findlay calls the train a 'spectacular failure' instead of the revolutionary rapid transit system it was meant to be: 'That was a dream,' he says. 'It's kind of a toy.' "
At the end of 2011 I had been contacted by "SeattleMet" magazine and had been asked in the context of a planned anniversary article about the Seattle monorail for an opinion about the question why monorails have not become a popular mode of transport. I sent the following reply to "SeattleMet":
"That’s really a very complex question: why haven’t monorails become a popular mode of transportation?
One day, I’m sure, there will be demand for a genuinely scientific thesis to answer this!
Currently the majority of established “transportation experts” still view monorails as exotic and untried technology, useful for theme park transportation, but not for city rapid transit services.
Why this opinion stays so stubbornly in the public mind no doubt has several causes. The first one must have something to do with the distrust, even fear, of anything new that might threaten traditional practices, even beliefs. The realm of technology is no exception (just look at the fears generated by the first railroad, the first automobile, the first plane … )!
Secondly the established transportation industry is doing very well with its conventional two-rail products. When modern monorails like the Seattle Alweg type (the concept is almost as old as the two-rail idea) were developed in the 1950s genuine experts will at once have noted, that such a system – if accepted and on its way to mass production (making it financially competitive with standard two-rail products) – has some very big advantages compared to two-rail solutions. So no established two-rail industry was interested in investing money in a technology that might develop into competition for its own lucrative line of products.
One exception was/is the Hitachi Company of Japan (that bought Alweg licenses during the 1960s) that recognized the monorail advantages for use in tight metropolitan areas where expensive and lengthy subway construction was impractical or even impossible (best example is the Haneda line connecting downtown Tokyo with Haneda airport). Hitachi – a big manufacturer of conventional railroad equipment – developed the Alweg system to today’s state of the art technology standards. Bombardier (Canada/Germany) and Scomi (Malaysia) have today understood this lesson too. The fact that a company like Bombardier today offers an Alweg-type monorail system indicates that monorails are now on the way to becoming popular modes of transportation.
The Alweg engineers during the 1950s already pointed out that their monorail system was ideal for countries that we today call emerging countries. Alweg’s first city rapid transit system was to be built for Sao Paulo. For unknown reasons the project was cancelled at the last moment. Interestingly enough, Bombardier and Scomi are today building extensive monorail lines in Sao Paulo! Describing the advantages in the same way Alweg did in the 1950s!
Technological innovation and progress evidently either happens overnight or at snail’s pace, but rarely in moderate time spans. Which might be another explanation why monorail hasn’t become popular yet. – strange thing is that the public likes monorail, but the “experts” don’t like it for above reasons.
But the times they are a’changin’ …
Seattle and its affair with monorail remains a mystery! – But a closer look shows that here too the public likes the monorail, but “established circles” do not (also for above reasons). Ex Washington State Governor Rosellini was once quoted as saying that he greatly regrets not having pushed monorail for Seattle back in the 1960s after the World’s Fair. The recent Green Line fiasco still needs to be explained thoroughly. Who knows, what really went on during those years of the Green Line campaign. It’s sad that evidently none of those Seattle business and information technology wizards who put Seattle on the map globally have recognized the overall advantages (particularly from an ecological and modern sustainability point of view) of the Alweg system that operates in their city successfully since 1962 and demonstrates what monorail can do (particularly also for emerging countries; countries they aid in various admirable ways through their foundations). Maybe they grew up with parents who disliked this monorail intrusion upon Fifth Avenue back in 1962.
And there is of course this strange American inability to understand that public transport is a part of a normal civilized society. The American fear of subsidies for public rail transport is irrational. There is after all no fear of subsidies (taxes) for roads and highways or airlines! This state of mind also contributed to the eventual demise of the Green Line (but in Seattle it at least took several elections and a very strange Green Line financing plan to stop the Green Line).
Sadly it looks as if none of the hyperactive monorail supporters pushing the Green Line idea have taken the time to document a comparison between the Green Line and the two-rail alternative that was built in its place.
Who knows, - if influential streetcar fans in Seattle had been monorail fans, Seattle might now have a world famous monorail rapid transit system and would today be a transportation avant garde city. But that honor will now go to Sao Paulo and Mumbai (where Scomi is building a monorail rapid transit line) …
These are just a few thoughts for answers to the question, why monorails have not yet become a popular mode of transportation."
Had I known beforehand that I would be quoted out of context in this way and had I known that the "article" ends with the in my opinion unqualified quote by an "expert", - I would not have responded to the initial request by "SeattleMet" ...
This same anniversary issue of the "SeattleMet" magazine includes a beautiful one-page advertisement (page 57) by SEATTLE CENTER MONORAIL for the 50th anniversary celebration of the monorail on March 24, 2012.
It would be interesting to know if University of Washington historian John Findlay is aware of the fact that in the cities of Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Riyadh, Daegu and Manaus Alweg type monorail rapid transit lines are being built!? According to Mr. Findlay these cities have decided to utilize "a kind of toy" for city rapid transit ...
What a strange way to honor the Seattle Alweg monorail! Particularly in view of the fact that in the entire "SeattleMet" anniversary issue (they call it "Official Commemorative Issue") the monorail figures prominently in text and in illustrations. So why is it necessary to have it degraded to "a kind of toy" for its 50th anniversary? - On page 13 there's an airline ad advertising non-stop daily Seattle to Dubai flights as of March 1rst. Dubai, home of the latest Hitachi Alweg type monorail connecting the city with the Palm ...
Back in 1963 our family was - thanks to Alweg - still living in wonderful Seattle and in September of that year I entered Queen Anne Highschool. The school's newspaper was called the "Kuay Weekly" and two budding students of journalism interviewed me to write a short article about new Queen Anne Highschool students from Germany. That seemed like a nice idea, but the resulting article was a bit of a disappointment because it included mixed up facts and false quotations. That was my introduction to American journalism. Almost 50 years later things seem not to have changed much.
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