With monorail off Seattle's list of potential modes of mass transit, the remaining contenders to serve the western side of the city are streetcars, buses, and light rail.

Sponsored by the Sierra Club at the REI store downtown, the transit forum for about 100 featured a panel discussion by city officials, a state legislator and a journalist.

Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin talked about "bus rapid transit," which means buses traveling in bus-only lanes. Costs jump upward if bus rapid transit operates on lanes that are "grade-separated" or on a different roadbed from normal streets, he said.

The city is asking the Washington Legislature for taxing authority similar to that extended to the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority, Conlin said.

He also suggested using express streetcars that would stop less frequently than buses and be able to cruise through intersections by controlling traffic signals.

Conlin's suggestion got a rise out of panel moderator C. R. Douglas, host of civic affairs programs on the Seattle Channel. He pointed out Conlin has been on the City Council for eight years and is chairman of the council's transportation committee.

"Why don't you have a plan for getting from West Seattle to downtown?" Douglas asked as many in the audience cheered.

Meanwhile Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis called for a regional approach to transportation problems with emphasis on roads, viaducts and bridges. He urged voters to approve replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 floating bridge as well as widening the Spokane Street Viaduct.

More and more regional projects are competing for scarce dollars, Ceis said, noting local officials will have to be willing to give up some of their authority to make a regional solution work.

City Councilman Nick Licata said cities need federal assistance to build transit systems. However it will be difficult to find federal money to help build mass transit to West Seattle and Ballard, Licata said, because the few federal transit grants that exist are oriented to suburban rather than urban areas.

He told the audience most cities rely on numerous forms of transit to get around, not just one. There is usually a combination of light rail, buses, subways and other transit means.

Despite the failure of the monorail project, Seattleites have to decide whether they want to spend money for a mass transit system or new roads, Licata said.

State Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Ballard, urged support for a package of state highway projects called the Regional Transportation Investment District. Three different packages of transportation projects are being considered before one is chosen to present to voters. Highway and bridge construction comprise most of the list in each of the three packages.

Jacobsen said it would be OK to continue collecting the motor vehicle excise tax that the monorail relied upon, but revenue would have to be used to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 Bridge.

Panelist Erica Barnett, a reporter for The Stranger, found it ironic that city officials didn't support the monorail, but now they want to preserve the transit corridor from West Seattle to Ballard that was purchased for the monorail.

"This is fundamentally about getting the MVET (motor vehicle excise tax) for roads," she said.

Conlin suggested maybe elevated light rail could be built to the Alaska Junction but he doubts Sound Transit money could be used to bring mass transit to West Seattle.

He thinks West Seattle is the most important transit corridor in the city "because there are fewer options there," Conlin said.

Bus rapid transit didn't generate much talk at the forum. A female audience member called the idea "a Trojan horse for more roads."

That prompted Deputy Mayor Ceis to say bus rapid transit is not a substitute for light rail.

Ceis also said building light rail to West Seattle would mean "real challenges" because the train would have to cross the Duwamish River and then climb into hilly West Seattle.

At the beginning of the forum, C.R. Douglas said, "Welcome to the monorail autopsy." As expected, the Election Day terminus of the monorail came up a time or two during the evening's discussion.

"Voters did not say no to transit in Seattle," Ceis said. People just didn't want the monorail.

"The public demonstrated they want a transportation solution," the deputy mayor said.

Ceis acknowledged that West Seattle and Ballard are both underserved when it comes to transit.

"The problem (with the monorail) wasn't the technology, it was the financing," said City Council member Nick Licata.

Sen. Jacobsen said the monorail made a mistake putting all of its chips on the motor vehicle excise tax.

"No city of a half million people has the resources to sustain it," he said.

He also called the former executive director of the Seattle Monorail Project, Joel Horn "a Rasputin-like figure."

Councilman Licata said pre-election polls indicated people liked the idea of a monorail, but 49 percent of them had no confidence in the agency managing the project.

The biggest mistake monorail proponents made was promising the elevated transit system would be profitable, Licata said. There isn't a transit system in America that turns a profit, he added.

"I don't think they could've gotten out of that box," Licata said.

The Seattle Department of Transportation is conducting a new transit study that will update a 2001 transit study.

Barnett told forum attendees the 2001 study recommended building a monorail between Ballard and downtown.

She thought the Seattle Monorail Project should've teamed with Sound Transit.

"If we second guess every transit system, we'll never build anything," Barnett concluded.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted attstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.