Transport Insights

As the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) continues to hide the independent peer review report into its mass transit plan, suspicions are growing that the underlying problem is an insistence within government that the authority should drop its proposals for trams and settle for a few more buses.

At a recent meeting of the authority, mayor Tracy Brabin quoted chancellor and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves as saying that “mass transit means trams”, adding that the authority is conscious of the need to prove to government that tram (rather than buses) is the right option.

As TransportXtra/Local Transport Today pointed out, WYCA’s West Yorkshire Mass Transit: Spatial Development Framework Joint Development Plan, published for consultation a week after the meeting, states:

Mass Transit is a large-scale public transport system, which may comprise one or more of the following transport technologies: advanced bus rapid transit, light rail, tram or tram-train vehicles.

Someone should tell Reeves. She stated very clearly to the Yorkshire Post:

There will be trams. Mass transit does not mean a few better buses, mass transit means a tram network.

But the paper pointed out:

However, the DfT is requiring WYCA to put together a business case for a new bus network as well as a tram system, raising the prospect that Ms Brabin could be overruled by Whitehall.

It’s worth noting that in 2022 Leeds City Council announced the completion of “work to transform transport and travel around Leeds following completion of the unprecedented £270 million Leeds Transport Investment Programme”:

Leeds City Council in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and further investment by bus operators has delivered significant improvements to the bus network, enhanced facilities for pedestrians and cyclists and transformed the public realm.

So maybe all the region needs to transform transport and travel is a few better buses.