(Editor's Note: This is a copy of a letter sent to the board of directors of the monorail project.)

In the past, I have been a strong supporter of the monorail project. However, I find my support for the monorail waning, as is true for so many in Seattle.

I am disturbed by the proposed financing of the project. To pay for the construction of the monorail, debt service on the construction cost may have ballooned to as much as $11 billion to be paid perhaps as long as 45 years. Seattle residents are not amused by the high motor vehicle excise tax bills received to pay for the project, and revenues are weak. The wiser course for the board is to build an affordable monorail. This means keep it simple. Build what you have money to do.

Consistent with the direction toward simplicity, the board must eliminate unnecessary expenses detracting from the main mission of the monorail. The benefit of a monorail is that it avoids the stop and go of traditional bus line and road congestion.

The board's approach to the Green Line in Seattle dramatically diminished those benefits. Many people would ride monorail from the West Seattle Junction to the baseball and football stadiums and then to downtown. Instead, the board decided to place a number of stations between the West Seattle Junction and downtown at great expense and to extend the line to the Morgan Street Junction. The monorail will not get up to speed and the public will have to incur the significant costs of the additional stations.

For now, the board must configure the Green Line to avoid the excessive numbers of stations on the West Seattle part of the Green Line. The board should have a main station in the West Seattle Junction and postpone the Avalon, Delridge, and Sodo stations. The line should not extend to Morgan Street.

The board must economize on this project, building a basic monorail from West Seattle to downtown and from downtown to Ballard, or the project will die of excessive costs. Build what Seattle needs, and not what every group wants. If you do the monorail can survive.

Philip A. Talmadge

West Seattle