Tram trains would be best

From: James Bovington, Church Grove, Horsforth, Leeds.

SO is the Tory government willing to fund a metro system for West Yorkshire? The best system here would be a fully electrified local rail network complemented by a tram system

ON TRACK: Northern ran trains on Boxing Day. PICTURE: GERARD BINKS in areas without rail and its backbone would be tunnels shared by trains and trams under the centres of Leeds and Bradford.

Similar metro systems contribute to high quality civic environments in Liverpool, Glasgow and Tyneside where central area tunnels allow passengers direct access to major traffic objectives.

For example, passengers in Newcastle can get off the ‘Metro’ at Monument straight into Eldon Square shopping centre. Manchester plans a capacity enhancing central tunnel for 2040 and plans are advancing in Cambridge and Bristol.

Glasgow plans massive expansion to build the first British provincial rail network similar to the German and Swiss S-Bahn networks in cities of comparable size to Leeds such as Hannover and Zurich.

Tram-trains are flavour of the month. This means that trams share suburban rail tracks but run on street in the central area.

A metro is the reverse in that trams would run on street in the suburbs but share central area rail tunnels with suburban electric trains.

This approach minimises disturbance during construction while allowing relatively high speed and direct links between the main transport locations without having to follow a frequently Victorian street pattern.

Hence lines from Shipley, Ilkley and Harrogate would link to York, Selby and possibly Wetherby via a tunnel connecting destinations such as the former Yorkshire Post site, City Square, Millenium Square, Eastgate and the SouthBank.

The line to Bradford via Pudsey could be converted to tram and connected via the tunnel to surface tram lines to Seacroft and Roundhay.

Demand on lines to Castleford and Pontefract makes them suitable candidates for light rail, perhaps linked to a line to Holt Park via Leeds University and Headingley.

These are suggestions requiring thorough evaluation. However Leeds had ambitious plans to place single deck trams underground which would have been the basis of a modern urban metro.

So will I see such a CrossRail Metro system in my lifetime emulating that of our nation’s capital? I’m calling the Tories’ bluff. Not that Labour has done better – not a single metre of rail track electrified in West Yorkshire under Labour governments.

Let’s be the first area in Britain to develop a fully electrified train and tram network sharing central area rail tunnels in our two major cities.