Seattle's monorail gets a makeover ahead of Climate Pledge Arena's grand opening

One of Seattle's more iconic modes of transit just unveiled major upgrades: monorail service resumed Monday after a month-long closure in anticipation of Climate Pledge Arena's grand opening next week.

Construction on a series of projects, which included doubling the system capacity, increasing the size of the boarding areas and enhanced connections to the Link light rail and King County Metro, began earlier in April. The new completed features will give the monorail the capacity to carry 6,000 passengers per hour, reducing traffic congestion near Climate Pledge Arena during major events. 

The National Hockey League announced a partnership with the monorail last year to provide free transportation to and from Kraken games at the Climate Pledge Arena, making a capital investment of $7 million to fund improvement projects. Kraken officials are hoping that 25% of fans would use the transit service in its first year.

"The use of public transit can become a unique part of the fan experience and will likely be the quickest and most reliable way to get to and from our games," said Rob Johnson, vice president of transportation for NHL Seattle. "Our data shows that from Westlake Center fans can transfer from light rail to monorail and be at the arena in as little as six minutes."

Ahead of the Kraken taking to the ice, the Foo Fighters and Death Cab for Cutie will play a benefit concert on Oct. 19. Then, Coldplay will play a grand opening concert at the arena on Oct. 22, marking the band's first live show in five years.

The monorail is currently open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, and then will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. after Oct. 18. The service will have extended hours on days of major events. The monorail is currently only accepting ORCA cards and debit/credit cards due to the the COVID-19 pandemic. Face coverings are required, and trains depart every ten minutes.

Parking in Seattle's Uptown neighborhood near the arena for events is about to become more expensive. Earlier in the year, the Seattle City Council approved a plan to increase parking rates around Climate Pledge Arena in preparation for the National Hockey League's inaugural season in the city, raising the maximum cap for street parking to $12 per hour.

"Our plan is to start with a progressive rate structure," said Mike Estey, Manager of Curbside Management for SDOT. "For those that are just staying in the Uptown area for a couple hours, they would only pay $3 an hour. It's for those final three hours, if you were to stay for three or four or five hours, we're proposing to charge $8 an hour."

Councilmembers expressed hope that the increased rates would cause more residents to use available public transportation options like the monorail and Link light rail which just opened its new expansion to Northgate earlier this month.