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Chris Ames

West Yorkshire confirms delay to mass transit business case

I have had confirmation from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) that its main paper on the development of a mass transit scheme has been delayed…again.

As I wrote yesterday, the authority said earlier this year that it would submit the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) to the government “towards the end of summer 2026”, rather than in March, as previously planned.

The delay was said to be:

to ensure a more robust and high-quality outcome

A spokesperson for the authority has now told me:

We are currently finalising our Business Case and will be submitting it to the Government later this year.

I assume this is a reference to the SOC, which a January report to the authority (cited in a March Scrutiny meeting) described as “the crucial first stage in developing a business case”.

To be fair, the man in charge of the process, director of mass transit Mike Birch, did leave shortly afterwards, as did a couple of other key officials.

The delay may also be because WYCA is having to put a lot of time and effort, at the insistence of the Department for Transport, into showing why mass transit means trams and not a few better buses.

It may only be a small delay in the context of a scheme that will not open for another decade but it does put further doubt on Mayor Tracy Brabin’s pledge of “spades in the ground” the year after next.

And, given that it is part of an ongoing fiasco with one delay after another, who knows if “later this year” may go the way of other timescales.

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One response to “West Yorkshire confirms delay to mass transit business case”

  1. clearlyteenage2e6308de03 avatar
    clearlyteenage2e6308de03

    ‘Fiasco’ is exactly the right word. By any logic a tram system for Leeds should have been provided years or decades ago. Tram systems for most much smaller Europen cities have proven to work well and most cities in England, which have succeeded in introducing trams, are very happy with them. Zurich, a very rich city with half the population of Leeds, stopped the Federal Government of Switzerland from removing their Tram system probably mainly because their central government wanted the roads for cars and buses (and having an Underground system at vast expense).

    How can a city with only 400,000 people in a country of only 10 million have the power to overrule its Central Government when a city of 800,000 with highly knowledgeable, experienced and skilfull officers and members be overuled by less experienced civil servants and Ministers in London. Furthermore most of us dealing with evaluation of schemes know that at least the cost benefit calculation – making the business case used by the Department of Transport, is almost in every way flawed.

    Having had 50+ years of experience working in Transport I can feel for Leeds members and officers – the sheer frustration (and consequential delay) to them of wasting time and money doing another business case is completely understandable. Perhaps that’s why Mike Birch and other key officials left – they couldn’t stand it any more.

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