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U.S. District Court for Western Washington April 2 ruled in favor of Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) and Federal Transit Administration, dismissing a suit filed by citizen group Friends of the Monorail.


The suit alleged that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared for Sound Transit’s Central Link light-rail project didn’t sufficiently consider monorail technology as an option.


But U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled it was adequately considered, adding that the current project was conceived through a massive planning effort, which included a 1993 EIS transportation study, analysis by a governor-appointed independent expert review panel, an FTA-conducted Major Investment Study and the joint FTA and Sound Transit EIS completed in 1999.


Judge Zilly asserted that Friends of the Monorail’s challenge should have come much earlier before the decision to proceed with light rail was made.