Taking the long view of city’s need for a tram system

Metro and the Leeds councillors have gone very quiet on the proposed trolleybus scheme for Leeds. Perhaps it is time to take stock and do a post-mortem examination on the decisions affecting Leeds over the last 10 years or so regarding new forms of transport for the city.

It is a fact that the trolleybus scheme only came to pass because the Supertram proposal was too expensive. We were told that the Supertram system was going to cost £750m and because of this, the last government would not fund its construction.

A high proportion of the cost was in respect of the Headingley route and the loop line around the city centre. An estimate of the other two lines indicate that the Easterly Road and Middleton routes could have been built for less than £350m altogether.

They would have both terminated in the City Square to integrate with the railways at the City Station. The Easterly Road route would have also served the bus station running out east from the city centre.

What will come as a surprise is that in Leeds there are still 25 miles of tramway reservation from the days of the old train system. Instead of utilising these reservations, the priority was given to constructing the Headingley route, which meant ripping up Headingley Road at a huge cost and laying new track, making the development of the three-route proposed system far too expensive.

If one looks back into the history of the previous tram system, the Headingley route was of a low priority and was scrapped in March 1956. At this time, 10 routes were still operating in Leeds and these were the routes running mainly on the private reservations to the north, south and east of Leeds coming from the city centre.

By looking at a local map it is clear that the wealth and job creation areas are to the south and east of Leeds. The development of the Easterly Road and Middleton routes as planned, with park-and-ride facilities to the M1, M62 and A64 would really have generated growth and wealth in the region, taking thousands of cars out of the city centre as a big bonus.

Instead, the council and Metro are still urging the Government to build a trolleybus system, which will prove to be a total waste of money. At a local level, the councillors and Metro are still snatching at straws, hoping to win some money for the trolley bus system, instead of being patient and waiting until the economy improves and gaining a lot more money from the big prize, a new tram system.