Transport Insights

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

Author

Chris Ames

Tag: west yorkshire mass transit

  • Are Brabin’s mass transit plans just spin over substance?

    The senior councillor who called out West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin over her “dishonest” presentation of the secret report into her mass transit plans has renewed his call for it to be published in full and criticised her for engaging in “spin over substance”.

    The statement from Cllr Alan Lamb, leader of the Conservative group on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), followed the leaking of the report to The House magazine, although he did not mention it directly.

    Lamb said:

    I still cannot disclose the contents of the Independent Peer Review. But I can say it made material recommendations about governance, the business case and other key matters. We know those findings directly preceded the Government’s decision to delay the programme. That matters because residents were told publicly – with great confidence – that spades would be in the ground in 2028. If there is a gap between public certainty and private evidence, that gap must be addressed openly.

    The “peer review” by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority is reported to have criticised Brabin for focusing on an “unrealistic milestone” of “spades in the ground” by 2028, which it warned could be followed by a significant and costly gap before “the start of actual work”.

    Lamb added:

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  • Should mayors be trusted to build mass transit schemes? Can they?

    Pro-building lobby group Britain Remade is making headlines with its “Give mayors the power to build” campaign, citing Leeds in particular as an example of where a lack of mayoral power is causing British cities to fall behind.

    With West Yorkshire’s mass transit plans firmly in the news, Britain Remade is also running a Leeds Needs Trams campaign, but its latest pitch covers other cities, such as Bristol and Birmingham.

    New analysis by Britain Remade has exposed the scale of the gap between England’s major cities and their European twins. As a result, the campaign group is calling on the Government to give England’s 14 directly elected mayors the powers they need to change this.

    The data, drawn from tram, metro, and light rail systems across Europe, paints a damning picture: English city-regions twinned with well-connected European cities are being systematically left behind. Not because of a lack of ambition from local leaders, but because those leaders are forced to go cap in hand to Westminster for every penny and every planning permission for major infrastructure projects.

    The lobby group doesn’t appear to have published the “new analysis”, other that what is in its (two) press releases, but it highlights clear disparities in the scale of mass transit systems in England and France and Germany.

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  • Brabin’s “spades in the ground” scam exposed

    The secret report on West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s plans for a mass transit system has inevitably been leaked and is said to show both that the authority was working to “unrealistic milestones” and that the benefits:cost ratio for a bus system is “significantly better” than for the trams that it wants.

    The House magazine has obtained the “peer review” by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, which put back the project’s timelines from the early to the late 2030s. PoliticsHome reports:

    Tracy Brabin’s attempts to start construction on a Leeds tram network before her next re-election campaign were blocked after a confidential Whitehall review concluded this deadline carried a high risk of wasted taxpayers’ cash.

    The Labour mayor of West Yorkshire has repeatedly promised to get “spades in the ground” by 2028.

    The report is also said to have warned that the was being driven by a “political agenda rather than a recognised programmatic approach”.

    It added that “options appraisal for investment, robust project planning and risk management are critical ingredients for successful delivery and should not be compromised for unrealistic milestones”.

    There was a risk of “political embarrassment”, it cautioned, “if there was a large disconnect between a lauded ‘spades in the ground’ date and the start of actual work,” and it said that money could be wasted: “The risk of nugatory spend is high.”

    Unsurprisingly, the review also found that not enough work had been done to prove why the scheme needed trams rather than buses, something that I have written about extensively.

    The paper’s authors were “concerned” about the West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s (WYCA) “lack of unbiased thinking” on this question, adding: “There is a need to build the case for trams which has not been completed. 

    “This is particularly important because the likely cost of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) mode is significantly less than for trams and the BRT benefits:cost ratio is significantly better.”

    The WYCA has responded to the revelation by again trying to gaslight the public as to the reality of when genuine, rather than performative, construction work will take place and when the scheme will actually be delivered. A spokesperson said:

    Beginning preparatory construction works by 2028 has been an ambition for the combined authority for some time because the people of West Yorkshire have waited long enough for this investment…

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  • Isn’t “concerted ambition” just more warm words?

    The latest government document to reference plans for a West Yorkshire mass transit system shows ministers’ ability to offer little more than warm words – and hype – including an empty promise to deliver more than “warm words”.

    In fact, like Lord Peter Hendy’s “long overdue” PAYG upgrade, this statement in the Treasury’s Northern Growth Strategy: Next Steps document could be seen as a stinging critique of the government’s approach:

    The north of England has waited far too long for a government that matches warm words with concerted ambition…

    It continues:

    but by working in lockstep with northern Mayors, businesses, and communities , we can see the North define its own future.

    The problem is that central government has recently waded into the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s plans for mass transit in an utterly Stalinist way that includes putting the scheme back by years and telling the authority that it has to prove that it cannot just be a few better buses.

    “Working in lockstep” with northern mayors to allow the North to define its own future is a bit like the Soviet Union invading Czechoslovakia to help it define its own future.

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  • Brabin: We have to prove mass transit can’t be a bus

    West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin has cast further doubt over expectations that the region’s mass transit plan will deliver trams, admitting that she is in a battle to prove to the Department for Transport that “it can’t be a bus”.

    Her comments at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) Scrutiny Committee came alongside a refusal by transport secretary Heidi Alexander to confirm that mass transit would include trams.

    Brabin signalled the size of the battle by again publicly citing the support of chancellor and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves:

    It’s going to be a tram And as the chancellor of the exchequer said on camera, when she was interviewed about what Mass transit was going to be, she said, And Tracy, I said it was going to be a tram.

    However, we have to make the case, and that is fine. We are now in a process where we have to prove it can’t be a bus, and that’s fine. We’ll do that, because it will be a tram.

    At times Brabin seemed unsure whether she and Reeves were on the same side as Alexander or aiming for different outcomes, following the “resequencing” of the scheme on the back of a report from the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) last year:

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  • Alexander: Mass transit may not mean trams

    Heidi Alexander has cast new doubts over whether West Yorkshire’s plans for “mass transit” will ever amount to anything more than “a few better buses”, in what appears to be an ongoing battle between her department on one side and chancellor Rachel Reeves and mayor Tracy Brabin on the other.

    The Yorkshire Post (paywall) reports:

    Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has refused to guarantee that the planned West Yorkshire mass transit system will include a tram network.

    It adds:

    It comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that civil servants could overrule Ms Brabin and turn the mass transit system into a bus network, with West Yorkshire Combined Authority asked to set out an alternative business case for buses. The Department for Transport is the ultimate body which will sign off the plans for the scheme.

    It also comes after the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), led by Brabin, refused to disclose a “peer review” of the scheme by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) on the grounds that it would damage public confidence in the scheme.

    The Yorkshire Post article shows Alexander not only repeatedly refusing to commit to the trams that Brabin and Leeds MP Reeves have been pushing for but also refusing to back Reeves’ insistence that “mass transit does not mean a few better buses”:

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  • Marching on together?

    Following the admission that disclosure of a “peer review” of West Yorkshire’s mass transit plans would damage public confidence in them, central and regional government continue to act in a way that suggests the plans really are “in peril” and that the contribution of trams to the scheme may be limited.

    The latest desperate looking move is a press release from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA):

    Businesses, investors and political leaders have united to reaffirm their backing for West Yorkshire’s Mass Transit plans following a visit to the region from the Rail Minister.

    […]

    Leeds United Football Club is the latest high-profile organisation to throw its weight behind Mass Transit, alongside the National Wealth Fund and leading developer Muse.

    The press release adds:

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  • A sinking ship?

    As the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) continues to insist that there is nothing to see over the secret report into its mass transit plans, the man in charge of the project is leaving as it is kicked into the long grass.

    In a post on LinkedIn beginning “Time to change direction”, Mike Birch, the authority’s mass transit director has said:

    I have reached the very difficult decision to leave my position as Mass Transit Director at West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

    Since joining the programme early last year, the focus has shifted from an accelerated delivery programme, to one following a more traditional sequential approach. The next few years will now be spent delivering the business case, a very different leadership focus. I am proud to have led this incredible transformative programme, with an amazing dedicated team.

    I will be leaving in mid April, seeking my next challenge……

    When someone leaves a senior post to seek a new challenge, it’s usually a sign that all is not well and in this case, as Birch notes, the project has been “resequenced” so that it will no longer try to do spatial planning with business case development.

    This followed the “peer review” report from the National Infrastructure and Service Tranformation Authority (NISTA), which WYCA has refused to publish on the grounds that it would undermine public confidence in the programme.

    Perhaps the departure of the man who at the helm when the ship hit the iceberg will help?

    One response to “A sinking ship?”

    1. West Yorkshire confirms delay to mass transit business case – Transport Insights

      […] 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 […]

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  • WYCA prejudices effective conduct of public affairs

    Alongside West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) refusal to disclose the secret “peer review” into its mass transit plans, it has totally embarrassed itself in its response to a similar request.

    In December someone asked for:

    details of expenditure on consultants and external professional services connected with mass transit activity from January 2024 to present.

    Specifically, please provide: A list of consultancy or professional services suppliers engaged.

    The value and duration of each engagement.

    The procurement route used for each engagement (for example open tender, framework call-off, or direct award).

    The total consultancy expenditure incurred during this period.

    All pretty routine transparency information, you might think. But WYCA responded:

    the information you are seeking may be exempt under Section 36(2) of the FOIA. Information to which this section applies is exempt information if, in the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, disclosure of the information under this Act would or would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.

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  • Mass transit could mean a few better buses

    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:

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