In late 2023 when it was announced that the northern leg of the HS2 project would be cancelled due to escalating costs there was also a promise that all of the funds previously promised to that would be made available to other transport projects. One of the projects which could benefit was the long mooted tram system for Leeds (and the surrounding area) but as with most things there was very little detail apart from that headline. But that has now changed with the plan sets out by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
As there are Mayoral elections due to take place in May there will be just be one more meeting of the Combined Authority and at that West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin, is set to outline the plans.
Phase one of the proposed scheme would include two lines serving Leeds and Bradford – The Leeds Line and the Bradford Line. The Leeds Line would go between St James’ Hospital, through Leeds City Centre and to Elland Road and the White Rose Shopping Centre.
The Braford Line would run from Leeds City Centre to Bradford City Centre and would also link Bradford Forster Square station with the new Bradford railway station. This would support Bradford’s regeneration plans for the city’s southern gateway which includes the new Bradford railway station.
Future phases could see a Dewsbury Line in the future with the Combined Authority looking to work with Kirklees Council on this.
Tracy Brabin said: “Today is a key milestone in our plan to create a better-connected region that works for all. By setting out our plans to submit to government, we are taking a major step forward towards the biggest infrastructure project West Yorkshire has seen since the development of the motorways six decades ago.
“This will be transformational for the North, helping our communities to thrive and our economy to flourish – benefitting generations to come with greater opportunity and prosperity.
“We know that mass transit systems have successfully helped to regenerate areas right across the country by boosting connectivity, opportunity and prosperity – and we will work tirelessly to make sure that happens here in West Yorkshire.”
The “strategic outline case” will be presented to the Department for Transport after approval by members of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on 14th March.
The project will be subject to a full business case and approvals process. There will still be a consultation to come (and at the moment no exact route has been announced).
It is hoped that construction would start in 2028 if all approvals go through as hoped for.
There were a lot of very heavily engineered lines around here built by the Great Northern Railway which could have been converted to express tram lines like in Birmingham, Croydon and Greater Manchester. Where necessary they could have come off the railway formation and gone into town centres. We could have also built new communities around the tram lines with both Council and private housing developments. Things like Park and Rides could have been included as well as retail and industrial developments.
Instead we sold off these lines piecemeal.
I have long thought that the real criminal was not Dr Beeching, but the BRB Property Board and their political backers deliberately selling off land to stop the railway, or other users of the linear formation, being able to put it back. Manchester City Council protected the lines in their city and so the trams could more easily be put back. The tram stops at East Didsbury and the border between Manchester and Stockport is a few metres past the stop. Why? Because in Stockport the old railway formation has been built on and building round is not so easy and more expensive.
Trams could have run down Briggate in Leeds, across Leeds Bridge and onto the proposed reserved tramway. This would have run along the old Middleton Railway formation to where it joined the Middleton Loop at Moor Road. It could have then branched off the Middleton Tram Line at Parkside and run onto the GNR Hunslet line to Beeston Junction. Then taken the Tingley line up here to Tingley with a Park and Ride next to the M62. One line could have gone onto Morley and Bradford and the other down through Woodkirk and Batley to Dewsbury where the GN Station was in the centre of town. Continue on from there up to Ossett on the GN formation and then onto Wakefield where the line could have served Westgate Station and terminated in the centre of the City with street running. You then plan your housing and development around the transport!
The White Rose could have easily been served via a branch off the above line at Beeston with some street running and have the shopping centre built around the tram stop and bus station. Instead of building the shopping centre and then twenty years later building a line to it and terminating the tram some distance away. The Trafford Centre being an example of this.
Instead we close it all down, build on the formation and then decide that we can put it all back by running down the already congested roads!
If I ever do a degree my dissertation will be on light rail in West Yorkshire and the lost opportunities.
Short term thinking in typical British style. The bizarre thing is that there’s only about 15-20 years between Beeching and the return of light rail. So much destruction in so little time, voices ignored, warnings unheeded.
Hope Leeds gets a tram system as good as the Manchester one. However if Labour win the next GE I can foresee them pulling the plug on this project. Like they did last time they were in power to proposed schemes in Bristol and Liverpool.
Here we go again. 1944, 2007, 2016 …. tram yesterday and tram tomorrow, but never tram today, to misquote Lewis Carroll.
On 20 July 2000 John Prescott made an announcement committing the Labour Government to the building of 25 new light rail systems. I was listening to the radio when the announcement was made. Since 2000 only 2 systems have been opened, Nottingham and Edinburgh. I am not counting Croydon because it was due to open the same year. Prior to Labour losing power in 2010 only 1 system opened.
I remember Prescott at the time. He committed to doing it by 2010. I expect if this commitment had been in France, they all would have been built and running now. The old adage “expect nothing” is always wise when dealing with British tram proposals. Then we won’t be disappointed when the inevitable happens.
We have the largest and most developed network of unbuilt light rail systems in the whole world from Penzance to Aberdeen. Truly world-beating