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Monorail survey as Monks Cross shops open doors

From the Evening Press, first published Thursday 10th Sep 1998.

York's newest out-of-town shopping park opened its doors today.

And as cash tills began ringing at Monks Cross, a group of experts was already preparing to descend on the site tomorrow to measure it up... for a monorail.

Plans to link the development on the outskirts of York with the city centre by monorail were revealed exclusively in the Evening Press last June.

Now the York Monorail Steering Group will meet with consultants Carr West of Guildford at Monks Cross tomorrow to examine the feasibility and cost of the project.

The plan, first mooted by farmer-developer David Sherry who still owns land at Monks Cross, suggests a 1.8 mile monorail, between the Ryedale Stadium and the proposed new Coppergate 2 extension on the Foss.

It would travel at ground level via Monks Stray, Heworth Green and Heworth Road, joining the Foss at Monkgate roundabout car park and going under two bridges to arrive at the bank near Clifford's Tower car park.

Carr West has links with Swiss-based Intamin AG which pioneered and manufactured an ultra-light rail system now operating in Tampa, Florida, Hong Kong, Korea, Stuttgart, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro. The quiet rubber-wheeled vehicles are capable of carrying more than 5,000 passengers per hour, but are economically viable from 450 passengers an hour.

The cost of the system is claimed to be about £2.5 million per kilometre.

An assessment about York is yet to be made on inspection, but translated to Monk's Cross at that price, the cost could be about £6.5 million, including track construction, stations, signalling and rolling stock.

Richard Savin, managing director of Carr West, said that since acquiring sole rights to the lightweight system his firm had been approached by numerous local authorities and was now assessing more than 40 projects nationally.

The York Monorail Steering Group consists of Mr Sherry, developer Peter Smith of Huntington Ltd, Monks Cross, and Jim Downes, of architects Downes Illingsworth of Thirsk.

Mr Downes said today: "We had meetings with officers of York City Council who have given us advice on evidence we need to take it a stage further. That is what we are doing and one of the evidence gathering exercises is the meeting with Carr West."

City of York Council deputy leader, Councillor Dave Merrett, today pledged the authority would monitor traffic to the new shopping complex. He said: "We have been assessing the likely impact and what measures could be taken to reduce traffic congestion in the area."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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