Seattle, Washington Monorail

The Seattle Center Monorail in Seattle, Washington is the nation’s first full-scale commercial monorail system which provides a fun, quick, and convenient link from downtown Seattle to Seattle Center. Most locals joke about the effectiveness of the monorail but for tourists, especially those in wheelchairs, the monorail provides easy and cheap transportation to the center hub of Seattle where many attractions can be found, like the Space Needle and the Experience the Music Project.

The Seattle Monorail departures occur every 10 minutes from two stations:

• Seattle Center station, across from the Space Needle
• Westlake Center Mall station, at Fifth and Pine Street

Getting to the Westlake Center Mall station, from a number of hotels in the downtown area, is a fun downhill cruise from a manual wheelchair perspective. The station is actually inside the mall, not visible from the street. At the Seattle Center station, there is a small gate that does not open automatically but could be pushed open, relatively easily, with an electric wheelchair or scooter.

Each trip takes two minutes to travel the 1-mile route. For adults, the fee is $2.00 one-way but for the disabled, it’s $1.00 Adjacent to the ticket counter is an area before boarding the monorail designated for wheelchair users. When boarding watch the gap between the platform and the car because it’s not entirely flush. Inside, pick an open space where you feel comfortable.