Tech City business leaders demand monorail to improve access

Executives are keen to see the so-called Silicon Roundabout district overhauled

Fast connections: the careers website Dice offered this light-hearted take on the kind of improvements sought by digital businesses in London’s Tech City district Dice

A monorail linking Old Street to King’s Cross and a network of tunnels beneath London’s “Tech City” top the wish-list for bosses of the numerous digital businesses in the area. Executives are keen to see the so-called Silicon Roundabout district overhauled to let them to move around more easily, a poll of 400 managers and recruiters by the careers website Dice found.

Forty-two per cent of those interviewed called for pedestrian and cycling overpasses and underpasses, while 26 per cent backed a monorail to connect Old Street to mainline railway stations. A mobile map of the existing network of passages under the roundabout was also suggested. Notably, the idea of replacing “Boris bikes” with hoverboards proved more popular than a tech workspace in the centre of the roundabout.

Rising rents in Shoreditch, east London, are reported to be driving away entrepreneurs. The number of start-ups in the area dropped by a third to 10,280 in the 12 months to March, according to data from UHY Hacker Young. In June, the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, approved a £25m revamp of the area, with new cycle lanes and pedestrian zones due for completion in 2018.