BREAKING: Monorail financing plan killed

BREAKING NEWS (Seattle P-I):

The Seattle Monorail Project board killed the system's controversial financing plan tonight, sending the project back to the drawing board to try to save the West Seattle-to-Crown Hill line.

NWPT55

An ad-hoc committee of the monorail board will try to determine how to salvage the project. Exactly what they would do is unclear, but officials said everything is on the table, including trying to come up with a new way to finance the monorail.

We congratulate the Seattle Monorail Project Board for making a wise and sensible decision. This was the right thing to do. And it shows the monorail board is willing to take accountability for itself:

The decision by the monorail board would seem to save the City Council from having to make a decision soon about whether to allow the line to be built on city streets. Monorail officials had wanted that OK by mid-August so construction could begin on time and the line could open in 2010. That now seems unlikely.

A week ago, when we said, "Stop the monorail", we made it clear what our objections were, and that the project as it existed then did not have our support moving forward. Over the last week, many monorail supporters have voiced their concerns, and unhappy citizens have also made their feelings clear.

This is a good development for the monorail. They now have the opportunity to produce a better project with a stronger, sound financing package and a line that delivers on what monorail advocates promised the voters.

Sometimes, you have to take a step back in order to move forward. That's what the board did, and we congratulate them for making a bold and courageous move to solve the problem before criticism could accumulate further.