The Leeds Supertram was a proposed light rail/

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

system in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

and

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It would have been a three-line, system with 50 stations. It received provisional government approval in 2001, and was specifically for corridors ill-served by the existing

heavy rail Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid accelerat ...

network. Supertram would have been 75% funded from the public sector, with final contracts for construction and a 27-year operating concession due to have been awarded in 2003. By 2004, disquiet about rising costs had caused the scheme to be scaled back, and it was finally cancelled in 2005 by the Transport Secretary,

Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member ...

. The northern branch would have served the universities and

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

, running to a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

site at Lawnswood. The eastern branch would have run to

Seacroft Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city centre. It sits in th ...

and Whinmoor, and the southern arm would have served

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamenta ...

, Belle Isle and Middleton with another park and ride by the M621 motorway. In the city centre, trams were to have linked to the bus and rail stations and shopping areas. Most of the double track route would have been segregated.

Proposals

Proposals for the reinstatement of trams or a light rail system in Leeds which were withdrawn in 1959 have been ongoing since the 1970s with various plans for varying light rail systems including ones which had planned partially or fully underground routes in the city centre. The cancelled plans mentioned in this article had dated back to the early 1990s.

Route

The planned system included three lines, which were to have been: *Line 1 (South Line), to Stourton and

Tingley Tingley is a suburban village in the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, Northern England, forming part of the parish of West Ardsley. Tingley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. It is situated between the cities of Leeds and Wakefield. ...

via

, Belle Isle and Middleton *Line 2 (North Line), to Weetwood via the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, Hyde Park and

*Line 3 (East Line), to Whinmoor via

St James's Hospital St. James's Hospital ''Confirms spelling of name as "James's" and Irish name'' ( ga, Ospidéal Naomh Séamas) is a teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Its academic partner is Trinity College Dublin. It is managed by Dublin Midlands Hospital ...

Harehills Harehills is an inner-city area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north east of Leeds city centre. Harehills is situated between the A58 (towards Wetherby) and the A64 (towards York). It sits in the Gipton & Ha ...

and

All three lines would have met in

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. Central districts A ...

in a loop line running along

The Headrow The Headrow is an avenue in Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of the most important thoroughfares in central Leeds, hosting many of the city's civic and cultural buildings including Leeds Town Hall, Leeds Central Librar ...

, Park Row, Boar Lane, Kirkgate and behind Kirkgate Market. The three lines were to have been the start of a wider system which included plans for other tram lines from Leeds city centre to

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

via Armley, Bramley and Stanningley and to

Alwoodley Alwoodley is a civil parish and suburb of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is north of central Leeds and is one of the most affluent areas of the city. Alwoodley lies in Leeds 17 which was reported to contain the most expensive housing a ...

via Chapeltown, Chapel Allerton and Moortown (the latter being mentioned in the draft Leeds Unitary Development Plan).

Funding delays

Following long standing delays in attempting to gain funding throughout the 1990s due to rejections by the previous

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Hunting ...

administration, in 2002 Leeds was successful in acquiring central government funding for the construction of the scheme. Four consortia were shortlisted: *Airelink: (

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

Anglian Water Anglian Water is a water company that operates in the East of England. It was formed in 1989 under the partial privatisation of the water industry. It provides water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment to the area formerly the responsibility ...

Morrison Construction Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Leicester, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in house-buildi ...

) *Leeds Tramways: (

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

, John Mowlem, WS Atkins) *Leeds Tram Link: ( Amey,

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia. , the '' Engineering News-Record'' ranked Bechtel as the se ...

MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

, Egis) *Momentis: (

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Bombardier,

Bouygues Bouygues S.A. () is a French industrial group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by F ...

, Jarvis) Preparation work on Leeds Supertram had started in 2003 where preparatory work was done at City Square and around the junction of the A61 South Accommodation Road and A639 Hunslet Road.

Project suspension and cancellation

However work to construct the system that was due to start in earnest in 2004 was suspended because of costs that were originally £500 million had risen far above this level to figures around £1 billion. This had resulted in a cut back to the system that would have seen Line 1 only go from the city centre to the park and ride site at Stourton and this would have saved £250 million from the construction of the scheme and efforts were made to lower development costs along the other planned routes. However despite this in late 2005, Transport Minister

said that he would not give the go-ahead for the scheme, despite £40 million having already been spent into the development of the scheme. Kieran Preston, the Director General of West Yorkshire Metro at the time of the Supertram project, claimed in 2013 that money could have been saved by finding new solutions to engineering problems, and by postponing a stretch of the southern line so that it would only run from Leeds city centre to Stourton park and ride. Preston said that the business case for Leeds Supertram was stronger than those for

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, but that the Labour government had spent the transport budget on railways and distorted the figures to say that Leeds could not afford it.

Proposed alternatives

FTR Leeds bus 19017 (YJ56 EAF), 19 July 2009 (1)

Alternatives for the future of transport in Leeds have been discussed. The FTR, a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system operated by First West Yorkshire, was introduced to the city in 2007. Research undertaken by

West Yorkshire Metro Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yor ...

and the government claimed that a BRT network could deliver some of the benefits of Supertram with lower capital costs due to unsegregated routes and greater flexibility, but with a higher long-term cost due to shorter life expectancy of rolling stock. The Leeds FTR service initially served the boroughs of

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408. History T ...

and

until the Wright StreetCars were redeployed and refurbished in 2012 to operate on the Leeds-

bus corridor. Another possibility investigated by Metro is a

tram-train A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that meets the standards of a light rail system (usually an urban street running tramway), but which also meets national mainline standards permitting operation alongside mainline trains. This al ...

system. On such a system trams are capable of running onto mainline railways as well as on tracks built in city centres. A 2007 feasibility study proposed that the network would run alongside First's FTR network and could potentially be extended to

Leeds Bradford Airport Leeds Bradford Airport is located in Yeadon, in the City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, about northwest of Leeds city centre, and about northeast from Bradford city centre. It serves Leeds and Bradford and the ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. A

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

network was approved by the government in 2012, which would have connected Leeds city centre to two park and ride sites in the north and south of the city by 2018. £173 million would have been made available from the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

for the construction of the network. The plans were subject to further scrutiny by the government, however they were eventually dropped in 2016. By the time of the network's cancellation, £70 million had been spent on both the trolleybus and Supertram networks. Prior to the cancellation of the eastern leg of HS2 in November 2021, reports emerged in the

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

that the government would fund the construction of a tram network in Leeds as "consolation" for the cancelled

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

link.

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of ...

criticised the proposals as being insufficient to replace the regional and national connections that would have been provided by HS2. Earlier in January 2021, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority had revealed plans to develop a

mass transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

network, with options of light rail, tram-trains or a BRT system being considered across West Yorkshire.

References

External links

Announcement of withdrawal of funding and new emphasis on BRTSummary of BRT study with links to full document
{{UK light rail Tram transport in England Transport in Leeds Abandoned light rail projects in the United Kingdom