Call for town not to miss out in transport planning

Documents produced for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority show transport officials have plotted three potential new lines out of the city, one of which goes west into south Bradford and then south again into Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Dewsbury.

But the indicative map has sparked fears that officials have earmarked the route of the Spen Valley Greenway for the Kirklees route, itself a former train line, that runs from Mirfield up to Bradford Low Moor station.

The greenway is popular with walkers, runners and cyclists.

Mirfield Tory, Clr Martyn Bolt, said he had noticed the threat to the greenway and was worried it would damage West Yorkshire councillors’ Leeds is the only major city not to have a mass transit system like the trams in Manchester. Right, Clr Peter McBride is concerned Huddersfield does not miss out ambitions to increase cycling by 300 per cent.

Kirklees Council’s cabinet member, Clr Peter McBride, said he was concerned that the rest of Kirklees was being ignored from the plan.

He told the meeting in Leeds: “Can we please make sure that we include all parts of the area in this and genuinely look at areas that need connectivity?”

Any plans are a long way off and are not predicted to be ready until 2033 in time to link in with Leeds’ HS2 station.

The draft routes produced for the meeting shows plans to create new lines out from new stations in the city centre at the university, Leeds General Infirmary/Leeds Arena, Eastgate and a station on the Southbank. Line one would then serve Holbeck, Armley, Bramley and Pudsey before heading into Bradford and North Kirklees, ending at Dewsbury.

Line two shows routes serving Leeds Dock, Temple Green, a new park and ride at Tingley, Woodlesford and Castleford.

Line three appears to go through Leeds central station to the arena, St James’s Hospital, Harehills, Seacroft and on to Thorpe Park.

The plans come after 25 years of failed bids to get new trams or trolley buses to free up Leeds’ clogged up roads. Plans for a Leeds Supertram emerged in 1993 but were ditched in 2005 when the Government withdrew the promised funding.

A second scheme for the NGT (New Generation Transport) trolley buses was unveiled in 2006 but was cancelled 10 years later. It is thought more than £72m was spent on the failed proposals.

Leeds is now the only major city in the UK without some form of mass transit system.

Since the failure to get support for any scheme, Leeds has become one of the most traffic jam prone cities in the UK and has been warned about its air pollution, forcing the council to launch a new Clean Air Zone scheme, that will see taxis and HGVs charged a levy to drive around the city.