Now the seafront between the piers has been so spectacularly restored, it's time to turn the spotlight on the stretch between the Aquarium and Black Rock.

Some money has been chiselled out of the city council, despite its cash crisis, for starting this work and it should pay handsome dividends.

West of the Palace Pier, a council input of £1 million resulted in more than £20 million from the private sector and £2 million from other public bodies.

Already, visitors can see the crumbling Aquarium Colonnade being rebuilt and, perhaps, that will spur someone to take over empty spaces in the Aquarium Terraces redevelopment, which has been empty far too long.

Down the road, demolition is at last taking place at the unlovely Peter Pan's Playground and a more modest, family-friendly replacement, including a proper children's area, is planned.

Three bidders have put in schemes for leisure at Black Rock and the already-burgeoning Marina is set to expand still further.

There is one sad sight in the middle of all this activity and that is Volk's Railway. The oldest electric railway in Britain leads from nowhere to nowhere.

It starts too far away from the pier for people to see it and it ends well short of the Marina.

I had a look at it the other day and it did not fit in well with the matchless grandeur of Madeira Drive. The lines were rusty and there were weeds growing near them. The wire fences on either side looked cheap and shabby.

Although all the cafes were open and doing good business on a sunny afternoon, the railway was not running because it was a weekday.

When it does function, the cars are creaky, slow and expensive. No wonder passenger numbers have drastically declined from the days, not that long ago, when there were more than a million a year and the railway made a handsome profit.

Volk's Railway should be freed from the shackles of council control. The authority cannot afford to invest money in making the line attractive or to extend it at either end.

It is not flexible enough to run the railway on fine days when they occur at any time of the year.

The little line needs some closed and heated cars so that it can run in comfort, even during bad weather. These could also be hired out for corporate events.

The extensions and other improvements could be partially funded by planning deals. A working museum and heritage centre is badly needed.

If a private company or trust were formed to care for the railway, it could also make full use of the many volunteers who already devote huge amounts of time to its welfare.

There is also a pressing need for a more modern and speedy means of travel between the Marina and the pier, such as the monorail being mooted by David Courtney and other enthusiasts.

This need not supersede the railway but could run close by it, a remarkable contrast between ancient and modern.

It's easy to think of Magnus Volk as a whimsical figure when we look at his elderly, decrepit railway but he was a real pioneer and entrepreneur.

Were he alive today, he would be pressing for a monorail and forming a company to operate it.

What's more, he would be trying to overcome the real obstacles of extending it to run to the revitalised West Pier, King Alfred and Hove Lagoon before terminating in Shoreham Maritime, a development to rival the Marina.