Transport plans for West Yorkshire welcomed by the Leeds Area of the Light Rail Transit Association

We at the LRTA Leeds Area are delighted to know that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has announced plans for a mass transit system for West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire is the largest urban area in Western Europe without any form of mass transit system.

Many plans have been proposed in the past for a transit system in Leeds, ranging from Supertrams to a NGT (Trolleybus) mode of transport but despite the area being in near continuous gridlock none of them have got off the ground.

With this latest proposal we now have a chance to have a county wide transit system, preferably a tramway, that will reach most of the conurbation.

We believe that the first priority is to build the proposed lines in North East Leeds as there is a huge population stretching from the Harrogate Line to the York Line without any railway connection. The disused Wetherby and Otley routes should also be considered to be brought back into use.

Mel Reuben, LRTA Leeds Area Officer, said “We welcome this opportunity to develop a comprehensive integrated transport system for West Yorkshire, with, we trust, a significant tramway component. Let’s hope this is not another false dawn and we will see construction begin in the not too distant future”.