Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system

Here’s how we could use HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail to help make it happen

Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system. The council has spent the last 50 years reengineering the city centre and its surrounds to accommodate the car. Neighbourhoods, historic buildings and a sense of place were bulldozed or partitioned to make way for roads.

It spent the last 30 years trying to build the first section of a tram network which due to Westminster’s direction became a Trolleybus proposal. Which was then turned down by Westminster. In part because it would create increased congestion for car users. During that time money was thrown at Leeds to build new flyovers and motorway link roads.

And let’s not forget the tram network Westminster pulled the plug on had a better benefit to cost ratio than London’s CrossRail. Costing only £1 billion for one cross city line Leeds could’ve had a network of 13 cross city tram lines (or 52 Trolleybus routes) for the price of CrossRail. And the country as a whole would’ve been wealthier.

*brushes Northern chip off shoulder*

Anyway the end result for Leeds is near gridlock at rush hour and air quality that breaches regulations.

Let’s talk about High Speed 2 aka HS2 (don’t worry I brushed the chip off). Now Northern civic leaders have played this project well. If you’d asked them 15 years ago whether the HS2 money should be spent on city mass transits instead I’d guess the majority would have said yes. And probably the same today. It’s moot I know. It’s not like Westminster would ever ask Northern civic leaders how best to invest public money. Their response has been to set up Transport for the North (TfN) and articulate how HS2 can form the spine of a new northern inter city rail network currently called Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

As part of TfN’s Plans for NPR is the new railway connecting Leeds and Manchester via Bradford. What form this will take hasn’t been decided.

And this is where Leeds has an opportunity to use the proposed NPR network to establish the basis of a mass transit system. Not just for Leeds but for West Yorkshire and York.

The route could be tunnelled from Halifax to York. Instead of two tracks lay four. Instead of just NPR trains using it have two tracks dedicated to a mass transit underground system with intermediate stops.

This could form the spine of a mass transit system for Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, York and beyond. What’s more it would be integrated with the NPR network and HS2. The mass transit stops could be strategically placed to support new housing, place making and new jobs. It would also mean future extensions of the mass transit system would ergot be integrated with NPR and HS2.

I know what you’re thinking.

“’Ow much?!”

Well let’s talk about London again. The nation paid for Londoners and commercial landowners in London to make money through increases in residential and commercial property prices respectively through their proximity to our investment in CrossRail.

The fairness of this unearned value has been widely debated under the umbrella of Land Value Capture (LVC). There are lots of different models including government buying undeveloped land at pre planning consent prices and selling it on when the infrastructure is in place at its uplifted market value. Other suggestions include targeted taxes for those who benefit financially.

The thing is we’re a very centralised economy. So testing, learning and sharing how different ways of governance work has been limited. Devolution in London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has helped. And the move to devolution in England will further help create that platform for innovation.

Well, what do we know? Northern projects are often cancelled by London’s Westminster in favour of poorer value investments in the capital. Investment in infrastructure has proved to increase property values for citizens and business alike. Devolution is happening. Except in Yorkshire. Because we hate each other.

The latter has been a slow burner. The City Region deal for Leeds and its partners didn’t go ahead and no one really knows why. We then had the One Yorkshire proposal. This comprised a cabinet of regional leaders, including West Yorkshire and York, and a unifying mayor. Because we hate each other. And this didn’t go ahead too and no one really knows why

So what was that about “’Ow much?!”

Well let’s put forward a devolution package for Yorkshire that has Land Value Capture at its heart. Whereby some of the value created by investment in infrastructure is used to help pay for it, which in turn enhances the case for central Government to invest with us in our future.

And what better project to start with than using it to help fund the incremental cost of adding a mass transit system to NPR.