The Metropolitan King County Council has approved the transfer to the King County of $426,000 from the defunct project for transit improvements that connect Ballard and West Seattle with downtown.

"These funds will help us to improve service on one of the busiest transit corridors in the region," said council vice chair Dow Constantine, whose district includes West Seattle. "The monorail was never built, but the needs it was intended to address still remain."

"With this action, the remaining proceeds from the Monorail Project can now be spent in the spirit voters intended," said Councilmember Larry Phillips, who represents the Ballard neighborhood on the County Council. "Voters recently reaffirmed their support of rapid transit in this corridor by approving Ballard and West Seattle bus RapidRide lines in Transit Now. These funds will help augment RapidRide and ensure these two growing neighborhoods have rapid transit connections to downtown and each other."

Since Seattle voters halted monorail construction in 2005, monorail project has been in the process of ceasing operations. One of its final actions was the transfer of a $426,000 fund balance remaining after monorail project paid off all its expenses. The funds were raised for monorail project through the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax assessed against vehicles registered in Seattle. State law allowed monorail project officials to decide which public agency should receive these funds, and monorail project selected the King County Department of Transportation because of its management of Metro Transit bus service.

The legislation allows monorail project to transfer the funds to the county, which will place them in an account for Metro for the operation, maintenance, capital repair, overhaul, refurbishment, or improvement of transportation facilities along the Ballard-to-West Seattle corridor formerly designated as monorail project's "Green Line." This corridor was already slated for increased transit service through the voter-approved "Transit Now" initiative, which called for the creation of RapidRide Corridors to connect both Ballard and West Seattle with downtown Seattle.

Dow Constantine may be reached at 296-1008.