How a Hyperloop will lead West Yorkshire to a brave new world – Hugh Goulbourne

I like to think I’m different in that I’m not a career politician. And the bandwagon I want to see roll into West Yorkshire is Hyperloop. The wagon in question is actually a capsule that speeds along inside a vacuum tube.

The bottom line? It’s eco-friendly, it’s secure and get this – it would mean you could get from any street in West Yorkshire to Manchester in 30 minutes. Sound like the stuff of dreams or even a sci-fi box set? Think again, the first passengers travelled in one last week.

Let’s rewind to the present day. I live in Huddersfield and I know people are fed up of waiting for the one bus an hour that often never arrives. I know thousands of you have experienced sitting in the M62 car park or paying crazy money to wait on a cold platform for a train that is late and a sardine special. I know people want this fixed.

People talk about other areas of improvement, and rightly so, but transport cuts across every single element. Economy, employment, education, health, safety, crime. We tackle transport, we tackle it all. It’s not a silver bullet, but it is powerful. And that problem is shared from Wakefield to Halifax and from Bradford to Leeds.

So I want us all to dare to dream. No, not policy waffle. Actual ambition that, if it’s right, we can make a reality. And that’s why if I were mayor, I would want to first see if this is even possible with a detailed feasibility study on Hyperloop.

Access to affordable, reliable and safe transport is a critical social justice issue for me. That sounds heavy, but I believe it. Mass transport systems around the world provide access to work for millions of people and drive investment. They enhance interaction between different economic groups and provide a genuine alternative to private car use.

Fewer cars improves our environment and air quality, reduces noise, accidents, and the cost that brings to families and to the NHS. And yes, fewer cars also means our road networks can cope better with the cars that will still need them.

Hyperloop could help build an affordable, reliable and safe mass transit system. It could be installed alongside existing infrastructure, like rail or motorways, reducing the need to plough through existing buildings, homes and villages like a certain old tech train line is currently attempting to do.

Importantly, it would remove existing inter-regional trains, like Leeds to Manchester, in turn freeing up capacity for us to add more local services and new light rail – connecting our local area in a way we haven’t seen for decades or arguably ever. Hyperloop brings hyper-local opportunities. That’s how we can get connected.

But it won’t achieve anything without a plan to sort our current hotchpotch of transport options here – integrating trains, buses, cars, taxis, cycles, walking plus new options like driverless cars and electric scooters. So a mayor must not be too proud to look at what’s working well outside of West Yorkshire.

Regions like Helsinki, Berlin and Toulouse are already using free digital apps to let people navigate this mix of transport and access an array of options at a better price. Transport providers are not obliged to join the scheme but if they do, then they are guaranteed custom through the app and access to attractive contracts and grants.

Back here, this would mean the mayor taking control of all forms of transport and bringing these options under one umbrella platform, with requirements on providers to sign up to rules on ticket pricing, health and safety standards and the option for workers to have trade union representation.

The app will put choice in the hands of local people and enable them to work out how they get from A to B. That way, infrastructure planning is based on what us locals need and deserve, rather than what we can afford with what’s been given to us.

It’s something that could be done within four years – my first term if elected as your new mayor. But, like I said, I don’t want these to be projects led by the good and the great. I want input from everyone here in West Yorkshire.

It’s easy to wave, smile and do short term things that make a mayor look
good. The best and bravest look longer term. It may take longer, the road may be harder, but that’s why we should travel it to a braver, better future for West Yorkshire.

Hugh Goulbourne is a lawyer and a director of a renewables energy investment fund. He is seeking to be Labour’s candidate in next year’s West Yorkshire mayoral election.

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