West Yorkshire mass transit network ‘will not be Leeds-centric’

Construction on the network that is expected to link towns and cities across the region, including Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield, is due to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2040.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is currently considering a number of possible routes, looking at how it can acquire the land that will be required and trying to decide on a mode of transport, as it considers trams, tram-train vehicles and modified buses.

It said the network, which is expected to cost more than £2bn, will “transform travel in the region” and cut congestion and pollution.

At a WYCA meeting yesterday, Councillor Kayleigh Brooks said the project is “really exciting” but she is keen to find out which towns and cities will be on the route.

The Labour councillor said areas of West Yorkshire “that often don’t see very much infrastructure improvement” must be included, adding: “I don’t want it to end up basically just being in Leeds.”

Stacey White, a policy manager working on the project, said the combined authority is exploring various options for stops and it will reveal which locations are being considered next year, before asking people to have their say during a consultation.

She told the meeting it is “definitely not Leeds-centric” and said people will be able to use services to travel across West Yorkshire.

“It’s not just about mass transit, which will only work if it connects to other modes of transport,” she added.

“We need to think of mass transit like a spine connecting to other transport modes with seamless integration.”

Calderdale Council leader Jane Scullion said the design team needs to pay close attention to the hilly terrain in parts of West Yorkshire.

“Yes, you can move lots of people around Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield, but it’s a much more challenging issue when you get to Kirklees and Calderdale,” she said.

“How do you make the hills work? Some of the hills around me are really very challenging.”

It comes after a report published last week revealed “difficult decisions” need to be made about the route, as the design team weighs up proposals for networks that are fully or partially segregated from West Yorkshire’s roads.

The Government has already provided more than £200m that is being used to draw up detailed plans for the transport network and WYCA is due to submit a business case requesting more funding next year.

Under the current plans, a line linking Leeds, Bradford Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Dewsbury could be completed and open to passengers as part of phase one of the project, in 2031 if funding is approved.

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has previously claimed it is “outrageous” that Leeds remains the largest city in Western Europe without a light rail or metro network, and she is urging the Government to commit the funding needed to put that right.

The Government’s £96bn Integrated Rail Plan, published in November 2021, promises to deliver a mass transit system.

It is the third attempt to bring a mass transit system back to West Yorkshire, since Leeds’s tram network was shut down in 1959.

Plans for Leeds Supertram were abandoned by Tony Blair’s Government in 2005, due to concerns about the soaring cost, before a controversial bid to bring a £250m trolleybus network to the city was scrapped in 2016.