How Leeds twice missed out on an underground system
Going underground: The story of plans for a Leeds underground system
Did you know Leeds Leeds City Council seriously considered the possibility of beginning work on an underground system in the 1930s?
The plans were published in the Railway Gazette in 1939 with the main station to be located beneath City Square.
The initial plans were to have terminuses running out toward Roundhay, Cross Gates, Bramley and Hunslet. The estimated cost at the time was £500,000 per mile.
In 1944, William Moorland, general manager of Leeds City Transport, submitted a further proposal to build an underground railway system in order to ease growing traffic congestion.
His east-west line was to run from the Woodpecker Junction to Wellington Street, his north-south line from North Street to Lower Briggate and from Woodhouse Lane to Neville Street via City Square.
The cost of that scheme was estimated to be about £750,000 per mile. But the idea was shelved in October 1945 when the Labour group took over.
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