Where next for Leeds on transport?

[yorkshireriderleeds]

The appearance of Theresa Villiers from the DFT in Leeds yesterday was ominious in what she didn`t say! All the talk was about the new southern entrance to Leeds station ( this has been on the cards forever!!!!) and nothing about NGT or new railway stations. Leeds has been treated in the most appalling fashion for decades by succesive governments, in part this has been down to weak local government, and i can see NGT being rejected.
All this contrasts with the billions of pounds being thrown at London, to put things in perspective the new Kings Cross booking hall cost more than the price tag for Leeds Supertram which was unaffordable according to Alistair Darling!!!!!! He who presides as local MP for Edinburgh, the cost of one piece of Edinburgh tramway is £700 million, a bargain?
Should Leeds borrow money on the open market and fund its own transport improvements?, as it is now allowed to do.
It`s worth bearing in mind Leeds inner ring road will need to close by 2014 for a major rebuild, without decent alternatives Leeds could grind to a halt!

[Yorkshire Boy]

National government won't even consider thinking about funding Leeds with a mass transit system (almost in any form) for at least 5 years (remember it will take around 20 years to be built at best as well).

I would suggest Leeds City Council produces an overall mass-transit plan that encompasses the entire city. Then, in piecemeal phases begins to construct this mass-transit system from the inwards - out.

I would recommend with Leeds City Centre being rather dense and constricted in terms of space, (whether it be tram-train or tram or whatever) that the city centre - the first phase - be partially underground.

Starting from Leeds train station up to the Arena/university would be my point of origin and then expand from there. Note that 'expansion' schemes are much well recieved from national government than an entirely new proposal.

But that's just me, and I'm not a town planner nor do I pretend to be one. However, it's obvious we have to start at ground zero and the phased approach is most likely to be the most successful in the short, medium and long term for Leeds.

[yorkshireriderleeds]

I wonder if we should fund a demonstration tramline, maybe a loop line around the city centre and start with secondhand trams or vintage stock as a tourist operation first. Other cities such as Portland, Stockholm and Christchurch have done this and its worked well.

[Yorkshire Boy]

Originally Posted by yorkshireriderleeds

I wonder if we should fund a demonstration tramline, maybe a loop line around the city centre and start with secondhand trams or vintage stock as a tourist operation first. Other cities such as Portland, Stockholm and Christchurch have done this and its worked well.

Possibly. A elevated tram system, ala Chicago would be nice and cheaper than tunnelling underground, the problem however is always going to be space, or lack there of.

[Lukas1]

On a vaguely related point, i've noticed traffic counting strips have been installed on the roads around my area in Rodley today. I can't see how this will give a fair reflection of traffic, as congestion will be greatly reduced in the school holidays next week.
This sounds like a conspiricy theory, but I also noticed this during the last school holidays, its as if somebody wants to paint it in a better light than it normally is.

Rodley is normally a nightmare in rush-hour. Horsforth roundabout on the A65 also needs a serious re-think.

[yorkshireriderleeds]

Originally Posted by Yorkshire Boy

Possibly. A elevated tram system, ala Chicago would be nice and cheaper than tunnelling underground, the problem however is always going to be space, or lack there of.

Leeds has a history of failed projects, one was VAL driverless underground Metro in the 80`s followed by BRIWAY an automated elevated skytrain system around 1989, both were dismissed on grounds of cost. Skytrain was unpopular with concrete guideways in tha sky.

[Aaronj09]

A West Yorkshire Tram or Trolleybus, we need to stop thinking by ourselves and start working more closely with other councils in West Yorkshire, and perhaps even neighbouring North Yorkshire!

[THEONETHATLEEDS]

Originally Posted by yorkshireriderleeds

The appearance of Theresa Villiers from the DFT in Leeds yesterday was ominious in what she didn`t say! All the talk was about the new southern entrance to Leeds station ( this has been on the cards forever!!!!) and nothing about NGT or new railway stations. Leeds has been treated in the most appalling fashion for decades by succesive governments, in part this has been down to weak local government, and i can see NGT being rejected.
All this contrasts with the billions of pounds being thrown at London, to put things in perspective the new Kings Cross booking hall cost more than the price tag for Leeds Supertram which was unaffordable according to Alistair Darling!!!!!! He who presides as local MP for Edinburgh, the cost of one piece of Edinburgh tramway is £700 million, a bargain?
Should Leeds borrow money on the open market and fund its own transport improvements?, as it is now allowed to do.
It`s worth bearing in mind Leeds inner ring road will need to close by 2014 for a major rebuild, without decent alternatives Leeds could grind to a halt!

Great points mate, its a total joke the situation in Leeds, London gets money after money thrown at every project with out any concern to the rest of the country. Here is just a couple of small projects going on in london
1. Crossrail (£16 billion)
2. Thameslink (£6 billion)
4. M25 widening (£6 billion)

Just to scratch the surface to show how much money is been poured into London, only a quarter of this money one time would be enough to deliver a partial underground and over ground mass transit train system. This would take Leeds into the next level of world city's.

[Aaronj09]

London has an Assembly, it funds its own projects.

[northernryan]

Interesting, the Campaign for Better Transport team believe that NGT and Rail growth should be given top priority for funding

http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/bl...ents-submitted

[Irish Blood English Heart]

Link seems to be broken.

[yorkshireriderleeds]

Originally Posted by THEONETHATLEEDS

Great points mate, its a total joke the situation in Leeds, London gets money after money thrown at every project with out any concern to the rest of the country. Here is just a couple of small projects going on in london
1. Crossrail (£16 billion)
2. Thameslink (£6 billion)
4. M25 widening (£6 billion)

Just to scratch the surface to show how much money is been poured into London, only a quarter of this money one time would be enough to deliver a partial underground and over ground mass transit train system. This would take Leeds into the next level of world city's.

It`s so shocking isn`t it!!!!!

[yorkshireriderleeds]

Originally Posted by Aaronj09

London has an Assembly, it funds its own projects.

London`s capital projects are funded by everyone in the country. As soon as London got the Olympics funding was diverted down south, I`m not anti London I just want Leeds to get a fairer slice of the funding on a par with the likes of Manchester who are building a tram system bigger than Amsterdam`s!

[LNGCats]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...n-2372283.html is also possible in Leeds.

Manc gets no more and no less than Leeds. Just you seem incapable of seeing passed the big ticket projects and actually looking at what does get funded and what is prioritised in West Yorkshire.

[yorkshireriderleeds]

Originally Posted by LNGCats

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...n-2372283.html is also possible in Leeds.

Manc gets no more and no less than Leeds. Just you seem incapable of seeing passed the big ticket projects and actually looking at what does get funded and what is prioritised in West Yorkshire.

I`m only talking about transport in this thread, nothing else. Let`s do the sums. Leeds Supertram cancelled. Manchester Metrolink £1000 million. BIG DIFFERENCE! Before people starting attacking me from Manchester, I am a huge supporter and user of metrolink, I don`t have an issue with it I just want Leeds to get a decent transport system. Leeds has had a lot of investment in roads but the the transport needs to catch up.

[LNGCats]

Yes. Look at how it's funded. WY gets about the same per head as GM.

End off.

As I said above, a £500m loan to GM to build the trams is just as available to those in WY.

[yorkshireriderleeds]

Originally Posted by LNGCats

Yes. Look at how it's funded. WY gets about the same per head as GM.

End off.

As I said above, a £500m loan to GM to build the trams is just as available to those in WY.

As I said I`m not on here to attack GM, far from it. Your last statement sadly isn`t the case otherwise we would be building our system too, our NGT hasn`t got any funding thus far and is unlikely to for reasons only known to the DFT.

[LNGCats]

The reasons are known though.

£££££££££

I would love all cities to have great transport schemes.

I just wish people would stop thinking that no matter what the cost and relative low benefits all schemes should get national funding.

It does amaze me that if these schemes are so massively important to WY why they have not been funded locally.

[Skychaser 2005]

Originally Posted by yorkshireriderleeds

The appearance of Theresa Villiers from the DFT in Leeds yesterday was ominious in what she didn`t say! All the talk was about the new southern entrance to Leeds station ( this has been on the cards forever!!!!) and nothing about NGT or new railway stations. Leeds has been treated in the most appalling fashion for decades by succesive governments, in part this has been down to weak local government, and i can see NGT being rejected.
All this contrasts with the billions of pounds being thrown at London, to put things in perspective the new Kings Cross booking hall cost more than the price tag for Leeds Supertram which was unaffordable according to Alistair Darling!!!!!! He who presides as local MP for Edinburgh, the cost of one piece of Edinburgh tramway is £700 million, a bargain?
Should Leeds borrow money on the open market and fund its own transport improvements?, as it is now allowed to do.
It`s worth bearing in mind Leeds inner ring road will need to close by 2014 for a major rebuild, without decent alternatives Leeds could grind to a halt!

Surely Theresa Villers can only talk about projects which are approved such as Leeds southern entrance. She would not talk about NGT/railways stations as they are still being assessed for possible funding.

[northernryan]

Originally Posted by Irish Blood English Heart

Link seems to be broken.

Try this: http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/bl...ents-submitted