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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
The Seattle monorail is essentially a tourist attraction. It doesn’t really go anywhere. And it’s not set up to move a bunch of people.
I don’t believe this is offering free transit on their rail line (which in my limited experience is pretty good IMO).
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I believe it is, although the NHL.com article is slightly unclear
Quote:
The NHL team's decision to include free public transit via ORCA (our regional transit pass card) with season ticket packages and single-game tickets will no doubt encourage fans to be part of a better flow to and from games. It's phase one of a three-part plan to be unveiled in coming months.
"We expect around 25% of fans to use public transit in our first year," said Rob Johnson, vice president of transportation for NHL Seattle who notes total transit boarding in the central Puget Sound region increased by 2.4 million people year over year, the largest increase among the top 50 urbanized areas in the nation. "The use of public transit can become a unique part of the fan experience [including 90-second bursts of fun information] and will likely be the quickest and most reliable way to get to and from our games. It's about a system which will both be efficient and build culture."
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As far as I've been able to ascertain, ORCA cards are already in use for all of Seattle's various transit options and are now going to be used for the Monorail system as well in conjunction with this announcement
I also found it interesting that the new NHL team is subsidizing a pretty substantial upgrade to the Monorail system and stations
Quote:
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As part of the partnership with SMS, the current Monorail operator, and NHL Seattle will make a private capital investment of up to $6 million at the Westlake station to achieve upgrades including improved platforms, modernized electronic fare gates (making ORCA card use even easier) and additional elevator access.
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