Leeds should form a partnership of equals with rival Manchester - YEP letters

James Bovington, Horsforth

Given that that expansion of the station is physically constrained surely it makes sense to plan to take local cross city services out of the station and transfer them to a central area tunnel with underground stations at key passenger objectives, such as the town hall and Eastgate as well as City Square.

The tunnel could also connect the rapidly developing areas of Holbeck and Southbank with the business core. Such a CrossRail tunnel would for example allow trains from Skipton to reach York or Selby. There are challenges – most trains arriving in Leeds do so from the west on viaduct - but these surely can’t be insurmountable?

The local network would need to be fully electrified but regional trains and future municipal trams could share the tunnel which would be a first for Britain, but similar systems do work well in Glasgow, Liverpool and on Tyneside and are planned for Bristol, Cambridge and Manchester.

Manchester, our friend and rival? Readers may be aware of the suggestion to abandon the eastern Derby Sheffield HS2 branch in favour of full electrification and upgrade of the Midland Mainline.

The western Manchester branch of HS2 would then extend to Leeds making Manchester Piccadilly a through and possibly underground station, justified by increasing land values.

Actually I remain unconvinced about HS2. I don’t see how it will bring daily benefit to lots of people rather than infrequent benefit to a small number. However an inverted S-shaped system connecting Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham with central stations accessed by fast local metro networks to allow seamless door-to-door journeys is an enticing prospect.

Will Leeds transport planners and their political bosses lose their inferiority complex and reject the pre-eminence of Manchester in favour of a partnership of equals and embrace the vision and begin the Leeds big rail dig?