Philip Haigh
PHILIP HAIGH examines the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s rail strategy, and considers rail’s role in ambitious plans to accelerate public transport use
“I suspect people still view cars as more reliable - if you own one it’s there when you need it, and it works door-to-door. Much of a car’s costs are invisible day-to-day; public transport’s cost is upfront every time you travel.”
IT’S 20 years since Railtrack rebuilt Leeds station and its approach tracks to increase capacity.
Dubbed Leeds 1st, it swept away the old dingy station roof and installed a brighter replacement that is itself now dirtied from the exhausts of countless diesel trains.
Changes to the station’s western approaches removed conflicts between services on different routes. This segregated trains approaching from Castleford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Bradford, Shipley/Ilkley and Harrogate as much as possible.
At a time when Railtrack was under heavy criticism, Leeds 1st was one of its successes. From my perspective, it was a good news story - not least because there was an ideal viewing platform from the top of the office block above the station. Railtrack’s York press team was keen to show its progress, and so I’d take the lift up to the roof several times for the panoramic view over the western throat.
But 20 years is a long time. And since Railtrack’s investment, pressure on Leeds station has grown with more passengers - they’ve trebled since 1997 - and more trains.
Network Rail responded by rebuilding the station’s southern concourse, and it’s recently added a new platform on the northern edge of the station. And a few years ago, it opened a southern entrance (taking advantage of the wide footbridge that Railtrack installed) to better serve an increasingly busy part of Leeds.
Now the West Yorkshire Combined Authority - Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield councils - has unveiled an ambitious strategy to further increase rail’s role in public transport.
In its 104-page strategy published on January 27, it says: “Our vision is to enable travel from anywhere in West Yorkshire to anywhere else in the region, at least twice per hour, at the same time each hour, all day, and every day - seamlessly, simply, reliably, and without worry about ticketing.”
That’s not going to be easy. But it then adds: “We have set an ambitious target that all journeys - from door to door - should be possible in a journey time that is no greater than the offpeak, uncongested, car journey time.”
Elsewhere in its public transport vision, it unveils a mass transit network that might include trams. It admits that this is likely to be expensive, but claims that it will help combat climate change, connect West Yorkshire’s key places, support economic recovery, improve health and wellbeing, and help rebalance the economy.
Aping Manchester and its successful tram network might help lay to rest the ghost of
Leeds Supertram, which won parliamentary approval with the Leeds Supertram Act 1993 and received government funding before the Department for Transport pulled the plug in 2005 amid rising costs.
Time will tell, but I’m not confident. I fear the cost will once again derail trams in West Yorkshire.
If it was the only plan, I might be more confident. But it comes on top of Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Transpennine Route Upgrade, HS2, and the combined authority’s rail strategy. I fear the bill for all of these ambitious projects will be too much for the Treasury in London to swallow.
So, let’s hop off the tram for now and have a look at the detail of the rail strategy. By 2027, WYCA wants to see 75% more trips by rail (and 25% more by bus and 300% more by bicycle). It wants to provide an alternative to cars that is so good that it becomes the preferred option.
This is a tough battle. I suspect people still view cars as more reliable - if you own one it’s there when you need it, and it works door-todoor. Much of a car’s costs are invisible day-to-day (depreciation, insurance, maintenance and so on), whereas public transport’s cost is upfront every time you travel.
WYCA’s strategy acknowledges that where rail in West Yorkshire compares well with cars, it can attract a commuter market share comparable with London (pre-COVID-19, of course). For example, 85% of commuter journeys from Airedale and Wharfedale are by train. These commuters were and will be aboard four-car electric trains, in marked contrast to most West Yorkshire rail journeys (the only other electric service from Leeds is to Doncaster).
But there are plenty of areas where rail doesn’t compare well. WYCA suggests they include trips over the big hill to Manchester (on a clear day, the M62 still surprises me with its speed).
Within West Yorkshire, rail performs poorly if your journey isn’t to Leeds or back, according to WYCA. Even then, it says it takes an hour to reach Todmorden from Leeds (30 miles) and 30 minutes to Pontefract (14 miles).
By way of contrast, to travel 31 miles from London King’s Cross to Hitchin takes around 35 minutes with a change at Stevenage or 45-50 minutes on a direct suburban train. To get to Brookmans Park (14 miles), it takes between 30 and 45 minutes with a change at Finsbury Park. So perhaps West Yorkshire isn’t as badly off as it thinks?
The WYCA vision sets three service levels for trains - two per hour for all established local services (new services may start at lower frequencies), 4tph for core routes (particularly into Leeds), and 6tph to connect major centres with Leeds.
That’s likely to need enhanced signalling, junction capacity, possibly four-tracking of busy sections, and it will surely need extra
capacity at stations. It will also need more stock, with WYCA suggesting an extra 60 carriages by 2024 and another 70 by 2040.
It reckons the first stage should be to introduce longer trains by 2023-24 - for example, six-car trains on Wharfedale, Airedale and Calder Valley services. These and other longer services will need longer platforms on almost all of the region’s rail lines.
By 2027-28, WYCA reckons on: eight-car trains on Wharfedale/Airedale and improved signalling Horsforth-Harrogate, Hare Park Junction-Leeds, Dewsbury-Leeds; fourtracking Hare Park Junction-South Kirby Junction and westwards from Neville Hill towards Garforth; grade-separation for South Kirby Junction; and enhancements at Engine Shed Junction (to give 750-metre clear standage between there and Whitehall East Junction) and Castleford (reinstating the second platform and adding crossovers).
In the 2030s, the same menu is applied elsewhere - so there’s improved signalling from Shipley to Skipton, four-tracking from Apperley to Armley, extra capacity from Milner Royd Junction to Rochdale, and longer trains towards Sheffield, Doncaster, Knottingley and Harrogate.
As 2040 approaches, WYCA’s focus shifts towards incorporating the second phase of HS2 into its proposals, but there’s still plenty of potential work on the classic network. There’s track and signalling enhancements on the Wharfedale line, better signalling along the Penistone line, and track capacity upgrades around Halifax, Bradford Interchange, through Micklefield to Church Fenton and between Hensall and Goole.
All this helps to make rail a better option than driving. WYCA expects a switch from
“If it was the only plan, I might be more confident. But it comes on top of Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Transpennine Route Upgrade, HS2, and the combined authority’s rail strategy. I fear the bill for all of these ambitious projects will be too much for the Treasury in London to swallow.”
road to rail and expects transport’s share of carbon emissions to fall as a result. Hence electrification doesn’t feature strongly in the vision beyond an all-encompassing claim towards a rolling programme that ultimately electrifies all the region’s main line railways.
WYCA aspires to lift today’s 44% share of electric passenger kilometres to 80% by 2030 and 90% by 2038, under what it calls a ‘max ambition’ scenario.
By 2030, it predicts that rail’s carbon emissions will remain at around 0.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (MtCO2e/yr). At the same time, it says mode shift will reduce car emissions from 2.8MtCO2e/yr to 0.9, while total transport emissions almost halve.
For perspective, WYCA reckons a 5% shift in freight from road to rail would save 4.6MtCO2e/yr, which it notes is twice rail’s current total emissions for freight and passenger services combined. It’s aiming for a 10% shift.
When BR and West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive electrified the Airedale and Wharfedale lines in the 1990s, they were converting a self-contained network. Services ran from bay platforms at Leeds to termini at Bradford Forster Square and Ilkley, while Skipton had been the limit for all but a handful of trains calling there.
West Yorkshire’s other lines have many more trains crossing the county’s borders. Those through Halifax and Hebden Bridge run on towards Preston and Rochdale. It’s a similar situation out beyond Huddersfield, although there’s work on partial electrification as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade. Many trains terminate at Harrogate, but a fair number run on the extra 20 miles to York. None of this makes electrification impossible, but it does need close co-ordination with neighbouring transport authorities.
It’s clear that West Yorkshire sees rail as an important part of its economy and one that will need constant investment over the next few decades.
How much of this comes to pass is anyone’s guess - there have been plenty of similar plans in the past. Perhaps the only certainty is that there will be some tough discussions about funding.