Leeds trams: Rishi Sunak 'to deliver' mass transit system after HS2 train link axed north of Birmingham

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced the Government will support a series of transport schemes after cutting HS2 north of Birmingham and has pledged to “reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country”.

This includes the creation of what he named Network North, which involves improvements to road, rail and bus schemes, including the building of a tram network in Leeds.

Speaking following today’s announcement, Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin described the scrapping of the Northern Leg of HS2 as “yet another betrayal of the North.”

She said: “This is yet another betrayal of the North, which will punish passengers and businesses alike. As we have found with this government, the devil is in the detail and we can’t take them at their word.

“Northern transport investment requires long-term planning and conversations with local leaders who know their areas best.”

A wider West Yorkshire mass transit network has been in the planning stages for years, promising to link the region’s towns, cities, and suburbs and is seen as central to Mayor Brabin’s plans for West Yorkshire to become a net-zero carbon economy by 2038, but has faced criticism of late after plans revealed it won’t be “Leeds centric”.

Plans for a new tram system in Leeds were first proposed in 1991 – more than three decades after the city had scrapped its original tramway. The Leeds Supertram and Leeds Trolleybus schemes were among a host of proposed schemes that never came to fruition.