'Not surprising': Reaction as Leeds tram plans delayed - sparking cancellation fears

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) announced this week that its mass transit scheme, including new tram lines connecting Leeds and Bradford, had been delayed by several years to the late 2030s.

It comes after a review of the project, conducted by Nista, the Government’s new arm’s length infrastructure advisory unit, demanded an initial business case submission for the scheme before further planning work could go ahead.

Funding for the scheme was initially allocated by Leeds MP and Chancellor Rachel Reeves during the June Spending Review, with West Yorkshire given £2.1bn to spend on transport projects between 2027 and 2032.

Responding to the news, Sam Richards, CEO of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said: “Sadly the news of a major delay to Leeds Mass Transit plans is not surprising. Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system. Across Europe, cities deliver tram networks in five to ten years. In Britain, projects are buried and delayed by process and a planning system that treats building as a problem to be managed, not a goal to be achieved.

“The contrast between Europe and Britain is staggering. Dijon in France was able to build a 12-mile tram network in just two years, after two years of planning, and it was built for just £37m a mile. One of the reasons Dijon was able to achieve this was because, unlike in Britain, local leaders have the powers to get on and deliver transport infrastructure without having to go cap in hand to central government.

“Yet again the Government has failed to live up to its rhetoric when it comes to getting Britain building, until it does it will be cities like Leeds that miss out.”

Leeds is the largest city in Europe without a light rail or mass transit network after its original tram network was axed in 1959. Plans to restore them were first proposed in 1991 - more than three decades after the city's original tramway was scrapped.

These included the approval of a supertram scheme that was shelved in 2005 as too expensive and a proposed trolleybus network that was rejected in 2016.

Martin Hamilton, Director of Leeds Civic Trust, has spoken of his disappointment at the announcement and conceded that the plans were now far “less likely to happen.”

“This is yet another disappointment to add to the disappointments over the last 40 years that has meant that Leeds remains the largest city in Europe without a tram system. Leeds Civic Trust has supported the idea of a tram system throughout that period,” he said.

“Reading between the lines, it is clear that this decision has been heavily influenced by Whitehall, and whilst the Mayoral authority must put on a brave face, the city’s experience with HS2 shows that when major infrastructure schemes are kicked into the long grass, they are less likely to happen.”

News of the delay follows an independent review, commissioned by WYCA, which has put together a “a robust, sequential timeline.”

To speed up delivery of the project, WYCA had hoped to plan the detail of the route while also submitting the business case for the system to the Government, but it has now agreed to separate those two elements of the process.

Despite fears that the delay could lead to the scheme being cancelled, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, has reaffirmed her pledge to have “spades in the ground” by 2028.

Speaking at a press conference in Leeds, Mayor Brabin said that she “understands the scepticism,” but remains fully confident that she would be “driving this tram” by the end of the next decade.

“People have been promised so much in the north, more widely, and here in West Yorkshire, particularly around trams,” she said. “That's why I am so determined that we are going to deliver this.

“I know that people say: ‘We've been here twice before. What's the difference?’ The difference is the political will. It's not just shared by me and government, but it's all our local leaders as well as businesses.”

Phase one of the project would see two lines, one connecting Leeds city centre to Bradford city centre and another one from St James's Hospital in Leeds to the White Rose Centre.

Future phases of the network would aim to reach Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale.

Conservatives in Leeds have said the new delay put the scheme in jeopardy. Alan Lamb, Leeds City Council’s Conservative leader, told the BBC: “I think they’ve put a nail in the coffin of mass transit in West Yorkshire. It’s like Leeds Supertram and HS2 all over again.”