Rachel Reeves: West Yorkshire mass transit is trams not bus network
The Chancellor has confirmed that the West Yorkshire mass transit system will be a tram network, saying it “does not mean a few better buses”.
Rachel Reeves backed Mayor Tracy Brabin’s commitment to get spades in the ground by 2028, and pledged that commuters would be able to get trams between Leeds and Bradford in the 2030s.
The Chancellor made the comments after The Yorkshire Post revealed that civil servants could overrule Ms Brabin and turn the mass transit system into a bus network.
As part of the process, West Yorkshire Combined Authority has to produce a business case for buses as well as trams, which the Department for Transport will run the rule over.
However, at the announcement of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) in Leeds this week, Ms Reeves sent a clear message: “There will be trams.
“Mass transit does not mean a few better buses, mass transit means a tram network.
“Leeds, as we all know, is the biggest city in western Europe without mass transit, we are going to be the Government that turns that around.
“I remain committed, we remain committed as a government to work with Tracy to get spades in the ground by 2028 and get those trams running by the 2030s.”
Ms Brabin, who said she was “confident” her team would be able to make the case to Whitehall for trams, explained she was “delighted” with the Chancellor’s support.
“Wherever the government go out and say they are backing mass transit helps me,” she said.
“Unfortunately, in West Yorkshire, because we have had two failures the public are so cynical.
“They just need reassurance constantly that because of a Labour mayor working with a Labour government, which backs mass transit, you will get mass transit.”
Ms Brabin has staked her reputation on the success of the scheme, and has said she will go for reelection in 2028 to see the job through.
The public, however, are naturally cynical about the project after a raft of previous failures.
Calls to bring trams back to the streets of Leeds, which were removed in 1959, have been going on for decades.
A scheme failed under New Labour when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, while in 2016 a trolleybus project hit the buffers.
Ms Brabin was granted more than £2bn for transport projects in West Yorkshire in the latest Spending Review, and so far WYCA has withdrawn £120m of the initial £200m allocated for the project.
The two proposed lines will see Leeds Station connected to Bradford, and a separate route past Elland Road to the White Rose Centre.
In its Northern Growth Strategy, published alongside the NPR announcement, the Government committed to continuing to fund the mass transit system in future rounds of funding.
It said: “Subject to business case approval, the government will continue to support delivery through future rounds of TCRs (Transport for City Regions), marking a new commitment to provide the investment needed to transform regional connectivity.”
Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel said: “After the disaster of the Trolleybus scheme we always knew we needed a proper tram scheme for West Yorkshire so delighted to see this has Treasury backing.”