Transport Insights

The transport stories you won't see in the industry-friendly media

Author

Chris Ames

Tag: west yorkshire mass transit

  • The wrong end of the stick?

    West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin has hailed a special “taskforce” to speed up the region’s flagging mass transit ambitions, but what exactly is happening and how it might help is far from clear.

    The Yorkshire Post reports:

    A special taskforce has been set up at Andy Burnham’s No10 North to try and speed up delivery of West Yorkshire’s mass transit project.

    But you have to go a long way down the story to (try to) make sense of it:

    She joined a meeting of his National Economic Council from No10 North in Manchester, and gave the tram as one of her three priorities.

    Ms Brabin said Mr Burnham’s deputy chief of staff Caroline Simpson immediately set up a special taskforce to speed up delivery.

    This is “going to look at what can we do to ensure greater speed, whilst also keeping the oversight of a project of this scale”, she said.

    That word “oversight” looks pretty significant here. Looks like central government is still in the driving seat.

    Rather confusingly, the next couple of lines in the story seem to refer back to the meeting rather than the “taskforce”:

    This included representatives from No10 North, the Department for Transport and the Treasury including Minister for Growth Dan Tomlinson.

    “Everybody that you would imagine was there that needed to be there, and we were really problem solving live in the moment,” Ms Brain (sic) said.

    And then:

    Ms Brabin revealed that West Yorkshire Combined Authority would be targeting officials with experience around mass transit as part of the civil service secondment scheme.

    Trying to make sense of it all, it looks like Brabin attended the first meeting of the revived National Economic Council at No10 North in July,

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  • Something old, something new, something uncertain, something untrue

    Heidi Alexander’s speech to the Labour conference yesterday included an interesting new policy on rail, an old policy on rail, and a few opportunities to read between the lines in other areas.

    Of course, her department stepped in with two public announcements to back her up.

    The new and interesting policy is the pledge to explore “buying trains over leasing”, as the Department for Transport (DfT) put it, as it published a Great British Railways’ (GBR) rolling stock and infrastructure strategy.

    As Alexander put it:

    In 2024, franchised train operators spent over £4 billion leasing and maintaining trains they didn’t own. £4 billion. That around a third of the total day-to-day running cost of operating railway services Every ROSCO contract includes financing and transaction costs and investment returns – costs which are ultimately borne by taxpayers and passengers.

    So, as we set up Great British Railways, we will explore whether the state can directly own the new trains we order. Because, I say again, Conference, who should the railways serve? If GBR owning trains would best serve taxpayers and passengers then we should do it.

    Many people would agree with this – and that with ROSCOs owning the trains, what is being delivered so far is not true nationalisation.

    That didn’t stop the DfT saying that the transport secretary will

    nationalise Avanti West Coast services at first opportunity

    which isn’t really news as it is happening at the time that it should happen under Labour’s manifesto.

    On Heathrow expansion, Alexander’s speech was notable for what it didn’t do – give a full-throated commitment:

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  • 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.

  • Has the Leeds tram stalled again?

    Back on the saga of the West Yorkshire Mass Transit – which may or may not be a tram – it appears that the region’s combined authority has fallen behind on its revised timetable for developing the scheme.

    The story so far is that nine months ago, a report from the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) led to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) plans for mass transit being put back from the early 2030s to the end of the decade.

    A report to the authority’s Scrutiny Committee in March stated that:

    The changes to the programme following the updated sequential timeline have resulted in a resetting of resources. This means the programme’s clear focus will be on the delivery of the Strategic Outline Case

    (and in fact a surprisingly long list of other matters to be the subject of a “clear focus”)

    The report said:

    Preparation of the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) remains underway.

    …

    In September we advised the Combined Authority that the SOC was forecast for submission to the DfT in March 2026 it is now expected towards the end of summer 2026 to ensure a more robust and high-quality outcome.

    I think we have gone beyond the end of summer 2026 but the WYCA webpage for the scheme still states:

    Right now, we’re preparing the Strategic Outline Case (SOC), an early stage in the Government’s business case process, which we will submit later in 2026.

    I’ve asked the WYCA about this; it has not responded but it does look like things have fallen even further behind.

    In the meantime, the Yorkshire Post reports:

    A disused rail tunnel that has been gated off for over two decades was opened to the public on Saturday and Sunday.

    …

    There have been calls for the structure to be re-opened as a public greenway, and it could soon become hugely significant for the region – the former rail line has been touted as one possible route for the planned tram system linking Bradford with Leeds.

    The tunnel in question is the Greenside tunnel and the picture above by Damon Sugden is from Greenside Greenway, a charity that campaigns for the preservation and utilisation of the tunnel as a community asset, “either as a greenway or part of a wider mass transit scheme”.

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  • Burnham “won’t be changing my tune” on West Yorks Mass Transit

    The saga of West Yorkshire Mass Transit plans rumbles on with new prime minister Andy Burnham perhaps backing the region’s plan for trams – or perhaps not – and another key figure from the combined authority jumping ship.

    The BBC reports Burnham’s answer during a visit to Bradford to the question: Do you support West Yorkshire’s tram plans?

    “I supported her [Tracy Brabin] in my former role, I won’t be changing my tune now,” he said.

    “West Yorkshire needs a mass transit system like Greater Manchester, like the West Midlands and and that is what it will get.”

    He said the proposed scheme would involve extending the tram south of Leeds, connecting areas where a lot of new housing is planned, particularly around South Bank, and potentially continuing towards a redeveloped Elland Road.

    Unfortunately the bit where he actually mentioned a tram is reported rather than direct speech and any reference to “extending the tram south of Leeds” is meaningless as there is currently no tram to extent.

    The plan may have Burnham’s backing but a key supporter, former chancellor and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves, is no longer in a position of influence.

    Meanwhile, the Yorkshire Post (paywall) reports:

    Another top transport official in charge of the West Yorkshire mass transit scheme has left the combined authority, the third in the last six months.
    …
    current head of mass transit place and consents, Stacey White, has left to join Sheffield City Council, after four years on the project.

    As the paper points out, she follows Mike Birch and Simon Warburton out the door.

    A West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) spokesperson pointed out that it is normal to see senior staff move elsewhere to progress their careers during such a lengthy project but it does seem that senior staff are moving elsewhere more quickly than the project is moving forward.

    As head of mass transit place and consents, there might not have been much for White to do on the consenting front, given that the plan is no longer to run the project development and planning in parallel, following the NISTA report.

    The WYCA has just launched a Regulation 19 (second) consultation on the draft West Yorkshire Mass Transit: Spatial Development Framework joint Development Plan, which looks like part of the spatial planning process.

     Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street

  • More wishful thinking on West Yorks trams

    There’s pressure on Andy Burnham to allow West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin to just get on with her plans to build a tram network but, unsurprisingly, nothing has actually happened yet.

    The West Leeds Dispatch notes that:

    Campaigners in Leeds have called on new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make a “cast iron pledge” to deliver trams across the region.

    West Yorkshire Needs a Tram campaign yesterday (Monday, 27 July) marked ‘Supertram Day’ by calling on Mr Burnham to fully fund a West Yorkshire mass transit system, 33 years after the last attempt at a city tram was approved.

    On 27 July 1993 the Leeds Supertram Act received Royal Assent, but it was scrapped less than a decade later by a Labour government citing rising costs. In the intervening time London’s Elizabeth Line was approved and built, the French city of Lyon has built eight mass transit lines, but Leeds has remained without a tram.

    Well, there’s a bit of history I didn’t know, although I lived in Leeds at the time.

    Meanwhile, the Yorkshire Post/Yorkshire Evening Post reports:

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  • A sleeping giant

    Plans to bring trams, or at least some form of mass transit, to West Yorkshire continue to go forward at a glacial pace, with the government continuing to talk a good game, while Leeds United do their talking on the pitch.

    The Yorkshire Post reports:

    Plans to bring trams to Leeds United’s redeveloped ground as part of a new mass transit network for the city have taken a step closer with a fresh agreement between the club and Mayor Tracy Brabin, The Yorkshire Post can reveal.

    On Tuesday, Leeds’ development partner, The Lowy Family Group, Leeds City Council and Ms Brabin’s West Yorkshire Combined Authority will sign a Memorandum of Understanding committing to working together to transform the site around Elland Road.

    The memorandum apparently cites the plan to include Elland Road as an arm of mass transit:

    If the strategic outline case is approved later in the year, then pre-development work can start to plan the mass transit network into Elland Road’s designs.

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  • West Yorkshire workforce proves highly mobile

    The shambles that is West Yorkshire mass transit continues with the departure of another top transport official at the region’s combined authority and “the Cabinet minister in charge of devolution” apparently joining in the row about whether it will be trams.

    Three years after being appointed as West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s first executive director for transport “in a move to bolster the top team”, Simon Warburton is following mass transit director Mike Birch out the door. He wrote on LinkedIn:

    … with a strong team in place to deliver on the Mayor’s vision for a modern transport system in the region, including mass transit and a franchised bus system, I have decided to move on to pursue the next stage in my career.

    Meanwhile, the Yorkshire Post which has chronicled the different views of government ministers and West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, quotes communities secretary Steve Reed as saying that “it is up to the people of Leeds” whether they want to spend regional funding on a tram system for West Yorkshire.

    I’m not so sure. For a start, as Reed acknowledged, West Yorkshire is more than just Leeds, and the region’s mass transit scheme also includes adjacent Bradford.

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  • Has Brabin dug herself into a hole with “spades in the ground”?

    Politics Home has published the full article by sister publication The House about the secret report on the West Yorkshire mass transit farce, setting out more clearly how mayor Tracy Brabin’s combined authority was working to a politicised agenda over the scheme’s timing and, in consequence, the scheme itself.

    The House has obtained a copy of the 45-page “peer review” by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (Nista), which it says sets out 19 separate risks relating to the project’s governance, assurance and planning,

    It says a “key recurring theme” in the review is the extent to which Brabin’s West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) allowed the scheme to be shaped “around a political agenda rather than a recognised programmatic approach” and that it specifically refers to her manifesto pledge to get “spades in the ground by 2028”, which is the year that she intends to stand for a third term in office.

    According to The House, the report says of the 2028 pledge:

    This date has been driving the planning for WYMT [West Yorkshire Mass Transit] and while it is vitally important to drive pace into delivery and also challenge current ways of thinking, there are elements of Managing Public Money, that government needs to adhere to.

    The article quotes a “source who has been following the project closely”:

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  • The spirit of devolution

    Last week the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) responded to the leaking of the secret “peer review” of its plan for trams by claiming the support of the (now defunct) National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) – but what the NIC actually said does not justify this claim.

    A quick recap: The House magazine has obtained the review by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) into WYCA’s mass transit scheme, which was said both to criticise the authority for pursuing “unrealistic milestones” under a “political agenda” and to show buses to be better value for money than trams.

    As I reported, in response the WYCA doubled down on mayor Tracy Brabin’s highly performative “spades in the ground by 2028” pledge. But I’ve also obtained its full statement, which both asserts the need for more devolution and invokes the support of the NIC over its insistence on the need for trams, rather than buses.

    A spokesperson said:

    Delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK is too slow, and in the spirit of devolution we want to innovate to deliver mass transit more quickly.

    NISTA’s predecessor body, the National Infrastructure Commission, set out clearly in 2023 that Leeds needs a tram. 

    The second bit is a reference to the Commission’s 2023 Second National Infrastructure Assessment, which does reference the case for trams in Leeds but in a far more cautious way:

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