Memories of the Merry Hill Monorail
The elevated monorail at Merry Hill began construction in 1988 and was opened in June 1991. It cost £22 million to construct.
Four stations were built - Boulevard, Central, Times Square and Waterfront East. A fifth was included in the planning to be built at a later stage close to the site of the former Round Oak railway station on the Stourbridge Junction to Walsall line. This was to act as a connection from a reopened heavy rail or Midland Metro line to the Waterfront and Merry Hill developments.
It closed in 1996 as a result of a combination of technical problems and safety concerns (especially the difficulty of evacuation), exacerbated by a dispute between the owners of Merry Hill and The Waterfront which at this time were owned separately.