Leeds and Bradford deserve better over rail – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOUR correspondent ME Wright of Harrogate describes the ongoing failure to construct a world class rail-based public transport system in Leeds as ‘a combination of council ineptitude and endless Westminster duplicity’. How succinctly accurate and perceptive an observation.

However, geography plays its part. Leeds doesn’t stand at the geographical centre of its conurbation unlike Manchester and Liverpool. This is exacerbated by the fact that although large, Leeds doesn’t dominate its neighbours to the same extent as its western rivals.

Other cities like Nottingham and Bristol just don’t have any local competition. I’m unaware of any other British city that has a near neighbour the relative size of Bradford. Public transport policy hasn’t been the exclusive preserve of Leeds City Council since 1974. Metro is a pan-West Yorkshire body and its elected members won’t be as fixated on Leeds as the geography dictates that Mayor Burnham has to be in Greater Manchester.

For the development of a regional Metro system like the S-Bahn network in Zurich, rail tunnels need to be planned for both Leeds and Bradford and these cities together need to market themselves as joint transport hubs for a region of three million people.

Mayor Tracy Brabin and council leaders James Lewis (Leeds) and Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford) might well be pleasant, well-meaning and in many ways capable people but they really have little concept compared to Andy Burnham (Labour) or Birmingham’s Andy Street (Tory) of how to develop a world class public transport network. Too often these local politicians are led by planners whose interest in Leeds is as a vehicle for career development. Have they for example even looked online at the WestLink rail tunnel scheme for Gothenburg?

ME Wright is correct that Leeds had plans for tram subways back in the 1930s and 1940s and it was short-sighted of the council not to proceed with this having bought suitable single deck vehicles for use in the proposed tunnels one now being on display at Crich tramway museum. A future hybrid electric municipal tramway system could share regional rail tunnels.

In the end though, it is the duplicitous actions of Westminster that hold the regions back.

From: Julian Sturdy, Tory MP for York Outer.

WITH the recent interest in the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan, it is important to remember that levelling-up is not just about the large-scale infrastructure projects.

The Government also needs to continue its focus on connecting smaller towns and nearby villages to the rail network. The long-anticipated station at Haxby will do exactly this for thousands of people in the surrounding area who must currently use increasingly congested local roads to travel to York.

In the House of Commons this week, it was good to hear the Chief Secretary reaffirm the Government’s commitment to supporting the delivery of Haxby station.

I am confident that with the plans well developed and the selection of a site imminent, the final Government funding announcement will soon be forthcoming and I will continue to press Ministers for confirmation on this.

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