Chopping the cost of the Green Line from a ridiculed $11 billion to $7 billion puts the monorail project back into the "realm of reasonableness," said Cleve Stockmeyer, a member of the Seattle Monorail Project board of directors.

Last week, a hired consultant presented financial recommendations to the monorail board that also could reduce the time it would take to pay off the project, from 50 to 39 years.

The announcement in late June of the $11 billion financing proposal was a surprise to the monorail board and its release to the public hadn't been approved by the governing body, Stockmeyer said last week.

The board member also says monorail has done a poor job of keeping its image after the unauthorized release of an aborted finance plan and for not showing that light rail costs nearly three times more per mile as done the Green Line.

Stockmeyer has pushed for reinstatement of plans for a dual-beam monorail guideway on the median of the West Seattle Bridge so trains could be rolling in either direction at all times. That was the plan originally, but cost-cutting lead planners to recommend a single-beam guideway on the bridge. The obvious drawback was only one train could be on the bridge at a time, which would greatly limit the number of runs the monorail could make across the Duwamish River each day.

Stockmeyer thinks support is building to reinstate plans for a dual-beam guideway set about 25 feet above the bridge's median.

In his financial report to the monorail board, Kevin Phelps estimated it could cost $33 million to erect a dual-beam guideway on the West Seattle Bridge.

The monorail could serve as a rolling substitute for the Alaskan Way Viaduct while the elevated waterfront roadway is closed for replacement. Stockmeyer predicted the Green Line's trains would be full of passengers "every day, every run" during the many years of construction of the viaduct replacement.

West Seattle and Ballard businesses could suffer economically during the years the viaduct is closed.

"I think there will be boarded up shops in the Junction if we don't have the monorail," Stockmeyer said. "To a lesser extent, it will affect Ballard too."

The stretch of guideway on California Avenue also was pared down to one beam, although that was more to fit the smaller scale of the surrounding neighborhoods. Stockmeyer said the California Avenue segment is still planned for a single-beam guideway.

Stockmeyer discounted talk among some political candidates of scrapping the monorail and running a light rail line to West Seattle instead. Candidate Dwight Pelz and Councilman Richard Conlin have suggested a light rail line.

"There's no trolley," he said. "There's no BRT (bus rapid transit) lane going on California Avenue. That's all smoke."

Stockmeyer is enthused about the new financial proposal but frustrated by the monorail's sagging public image.

"We do a poor job of explaining ourselves to the public," he said.

The monorail will be 14 miles long, have 17 stations and cost $1.9 billion, he said. Compare that to light rail's planned extension to the Ravenna neighborhood. It's planned for 3.3 miles with two stations for $1.5 billion.

Stockmeyer said he supports Sound Transit and its efforts to build a light rail system on the eastern side of Seattle. Light rail on the eastern side and monorail on the west will complement each other, he said. "We need to connect all four corners of Seattle to downtown," he said.

However, he's angry that the monorail is criticized over its finances since light rail will cost about three times more per mile, he said.

For many years, the public as well as transit planners have promoted the idea of passengers being able to ride all different forms of mass transit in Seattle under a universal fare system. People envision a time when a "smart card" would allow people to transfer from the monorail to light rail, buses, ferries and commuter trains. So Stockmeyer finds it curious that the Sound Transit board of directors has never held a joint meeting with the monorail board of directors.

Stockmeyer and Cindi Laws are the only two elected members of the nine-member Seattle Monorail Project board of directors. Stockmeyer has been pushing for seven elected members who could represent the same geographical districts as the elected directors of the Seattle School Board. However there is more political support for five, which would still give elected members a majority.

The board must decide soon to meet the deadline to get the issue on the general election ballot this November. If voters agree, more candidates could run for the monorail board next year.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.