Inside plans for a vast new public transport network in northern England

When a plan was announced in 2024 to introduce a £2 billion tram system connecting Leeds and Bradford, it meant Leeds might finally shake its title as the biggest European city without a mass transit system. But years of delays later, local residents are getting tired of waiting. 

Now, campaigners are putting pressure on the government to move ahead with plans for system that would connect Bradford and Leeds city centres via Thornbury, Laisterdyke, Pudsey, Armley and Wortley. A pro-growth campaign group called Britain Remade has urged Sir Keir Starmer to give local mayors the power to find and deliver transport projects without the involvement of the central government.

In 2025, a year after it was first announced, the tram project looked to be moving forward. Last May, West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin called on the government to approve £1 billion in funding and said she was keen to get ‘spades in the ground’ by 2028. But in the months since, the project has stalled. In December it was announced that the opening would be pushed back from the mid 2030s to the late 2030s. Plus, it still hasn’t actually been confirmed whether it will be a tram network. The final consultation on the route is also subject to delay.

Local residents would be forgiven for thinking they’re having déjà vu. Leeds has been lacking a mass transit system since its original tram network was axed in 1959, and plans to restore it have surfaced time and again. First proposed in 1991, they have included the Supertram scheme that was shelved in 2005 and a proposed trolleybus network that was rejected in 2016.

Recent research has found that Leeds suffers from a huge lack of transport investment compared to places like Lille in France and Germany’s Dortmund, which are both its twin cities. The populations of Lille and Dortmund are 1.1 million people and just over 600,000 respectively, making both smaller than Leeds. Despite this, both European locations have extensive transit networks.

Sam Richards, founder of Britain Remade, warned that Leeds is ‘falling behind comparable places in Europe’. He said the solution was to allow directly elected mayors to have more power over transport decisions in their local area. 

‘If the Government wants cities like Leeds to compete with the best in Europe, it needs to trust local leaders to get on and build,’ he said.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin still hopes to start construction on the transport network in 2028. Current plans propose routes through Leeds which prioritise key locations like Leeds General Infirmary, the South Bank, Holbeck and Beeston.

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