Thursday's report on the fire pinpointed several safety flaws and recommended improvements.
The report called for a better evacuation plan, electrical renovations, a new public-address system and possibly fireproof seats before the charred Blue Train and its twin, the Red Train, return to service.
It recommended major upgrades to the 1961-vintage trains and the safety procedures for running them. The report was commissioned after the fire.
Originally installed as part of the 1962 World's Fair, the monorail is scheduled to be removed and replaced within the next five years when a new 14-mile monorail system is built.
Upgrading the old system before that involves ``a significant cost,'' said Tom Albro, a director of Seattle Monorail Services, the private company that operates the monorail under a profit-sharing contract with the city.
The repair cost hasn't been determined and won't be for two more weeks while the private company and the city determine the price and whether to go ahead with the fixes.
The fire broke out at the Seattle Center after two drive shafts on the Blue Train broke and one smashed into components on a rear car's undercarriage, causing a series of electrical short-circuits and arcing that ignited part of the car.
The blaze trapped 150 passengers inside the train until they could be rescued. Eight passengers and one firefighter were treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire was the first in the monorail's 42-year history.
The report was prepared by SNC-Lavalin of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Hughes Associates of Baltimore.
It noted that during a monorail stall on Dec. 13, 2003, firefighters took two hours to empty a packed train carrying 450 people.
``The current emergency evacuation procedures and support systems need to be revised to ensure that, under all passenger load situations, passengers can be safely evacuated from the trains,'' the report said.
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