A monorail train will link Brighton Marina to Shoreham Harbour under new multimillion-pound plans.

Futuristic trains could be gliding from the Marina to the Palace Pier and then on to the Brighton Centre by 2009.

A second phase is being drawn up which will link central Brighton to Frank Gehry's King Alfred redevelopment in Hove and Shoreham Harbour.

The team behind an earlier bid to bring the transport system to Britain for the first time has held a series of meetings with Brighton and Hove City Council and the South East England Development Agency (Seeda), it has emerged.

Newly elected Conservative councillors and James Brathwaite, chairman of Seeda, are keen to see the multimillion-pound scheme developed further.

Seeda believes a monorail could unlock the huge development potential at the ageing Shoreham port, which has been earmarked for up to 6,000 homes.

Previous attempts to regenerate what could be the South East's largest brownfield site have faltered because of concerns about the poor road network and lack of infrastructure.

The initial £10 million scheme, travelling from the Marina to the Palace Pier, was dropped in 2005 with both developers and council blaming each other.

Labour councillors had not been convinced by the proposal and had discarded the option in favour of a bus-based network.

But the Conservatives took control of the council in May, and leader Brian Oxley immediately revealed he supported the monorail concept and wanted to revisit the proposal.

Meetings have now been held with the city's transport and planning departments, according to businessman David Courtney, who fronted the previous scheme and is working as a consultant on the present bid.

And now Seeda has also thrown its weight behind it. Chairman Mr Brathwaite told The Argus: "You know for a long time there have been entrepreneurs who wanted to build a tramway along the front of Brighton which would, if we had our way, connect into Shoreham to allow that to develop but also to take cars off the road in Brighton.

"From the plans I have seen and the business people who come to talk to me about it, it looks very feasible. The funny thing is that they have got the financial backing to bring it forward.

"It will be up to the local people and council to decide whether it is something they go for.

"Seeda will be very pleased to help Brighton achieve something like that."

Businessman John Regan, of City Partnerships, and Mr Courtney are finalising the design for the new proposal to present to the city council in the coming weeks.

Mr Courtney said that major developments at the Marina, Black Rock, the Brighton Centre, King Alfred and embryonic plans for Shoreham made the monorail a better proposition today than ever before.

He said: "It is key for the future developments of this city because we have got to be able to move people around. This could also be a catalyst to many developments in the future.

"It is the greenest form of transport apart from getting on a bike and will travel at 30mph.

"And by not building it on the road we do not cause all the disruption with road works and it should take just one year to build."

Unlike many monorails across the globe, the scheme will not involve tracks raised into the sky and is likely to run next to the Volks Railway.

Mr Courtney said he was confident the scheme would attract enough use from conference goers, tourists, residents and commuters and would cover Brighton Marina to the Palace Pier in three minutes.

Funding has yet to be secured for the scheme, but the developers hope to secure private and public investment.

The first phase, from Brighton Marina to the Brighton Centre will cost around £20 million, based on £10 million a kilometre.

Councillor Oxley said: "As I understand it the matter is now being discussed with officers looking at the technical issues.".

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