The Merry Hill Monorail - Part 1

The first of two films which show the monorail which used to be at the Merry Hill shopping centre / retail park in the West Midlands and linked it with the nearby Waterfront area.

The monorail opened in 1991 but only operated until 1996, and in 2001 was shipped off to Australia.

The footage used in this film was taken over several visits, plus there are a few comparative scenes (only still images) which were sourced in April 2010.

The Merry Hill site is a former steel works and comprises of a large shopping centre plus several stand-alone retail units at various locations within the larger retail park. The monorail linked some of the peripheral retail units (Boulevard) with two stations serving the shopping centre (Times Square & Central Station) and one at an offsite location nearby (Waterfront East) where there was also a large overflow car park. The original plans included extending the monorail within the Waterfront area, with a terminus at a fifth station (Waterfront West), and then even further in to the West Midlands area, but none of these plans came to pass.

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Some 2013 footage of the disused Central Station can be seen here: (someone else's film)    • Exclusive video from merry hill monor...