READER'S OPINION: A monorail would be ideal for Portsmouth

I have a vision of the monorail becoming a major mode of transport throughout Britain.

And I believe that Portsmouth is the place to start with a sleek, modern line to enhance tourism and improve travel to work and get cars off the roads to improve our air quality.

Monorail could then expand with routes between Southampton and Havant and looping into the peninsular towns.

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To the north-west of Portsmouth at Port Solent there is space for parking and an on/off hub into the city alongside the motorway and dockyard wall into the main tourist and workplace areas such as the cross-Channel ferry port, Commercial Road and to The Hard, the main stop for the dockyard tourism areas and Gosport Ferry next to Gunwharf Quays.

Then to Museum Road followed by the seafront.

I am sure that with fresh ideas and a futuristically-designed monorail system, the route could go further.

I visualise a monorail over the back of the harbour from Portsmouth, Portchester or Fareham to Gosport, which has major transport issues.

I believe that, with engineering and design expertise, the monorail could be developed to travel alongside motorways, using existing infrastructure.

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A monorail can go over or under bridges, over water on pylons or level with roads and every motorway could have a monorail system running alongside it with an on/off dispersion hub at the end of each route (for people or freight).

I read somewhere – do not engineer smallness!

Is this a big idea? Yes, but if this should go ahead it would not only make transport for people quicker and more comfortable, but also create a new business , throughout Britain.

Steel is currently at a lower price and available from outside of the UK.

Would this idea increase business for the steel industry in the UK and put steel workers back into work ?

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And wouldn’t this mode of travel also reduce our carbon footprint?

I believe that British roads, in the not-too-distant future, will be a constant logjam. Will they be fit for modern requirements? I do not think so.

There is money, millions of pounds, available to improve the infrastructure of British transport and monorail could be the way to solve this problem.

*This letter was submitted to The News by Keith Taylor of Inhurst Avenue, Waterlooville