Mass Transit in West Yorkshire

Between 15 July and 30 September 2024, we consulted on proposals for two tram lines, the Leeds Line and the Bradford Line.

Proposed plans for the Leeds Line

The Leeds Line proposes options that connect key landmarks and offers unique benefits, from improved access to our hospitals, jobs, universities and colleges to enhancement to our beautiful green spaces.

Proposed plans for the Bradford Line

For the Bradford Line, the proposed options promise to redefine the urban journey from Bradford city centre to Leeds city centre, improve public spaces, drive economic growth, and ensure faster, more reliable access to essential destinations, while linking key communities in between.

Mass Transit plans for West Yorkshire

A new Mass Transit system for West Yorkshire will be fully integrated with cycling, walking, bus and rail. This will be a transformational investment for our region, encouraging businesses to invest in the North and in turn creating new job opportunities for our residents, benefitting generations to come.

But this is just the beginning, as the first phase gets underway, we will continue to develop our plans for the rest of the region. In parallel we will continue to work with Kirklees Council on the Dewsbury Line development project, as well as Calderdale Council and Wakefield Council for future phases. We’ll do everything we can to make sure that no part of West Yorkshire is left behind.

Even with all the improvements we have planned for our existing train, bus, walking, cycling, and driving infrastructure, public transport is often still overcrowded, and roads are congested, especially during rush hour. If we do nothing, these issues will only continue to worsen so we need to act now.

Mass Transit can help fix these issues. We can increase our transport capacity as trams are able to carry approximately four times the number of passengers of a typical bus. Trams can also be segregated from traffic, spending less time sat in traffic jams, making them quicker and more reliable than other modes. It will be integrated with the bus, rail, walking and cycling network making journeys seamless for all.

Mass Transit is essential to bringing people and places closer together, to helping our communities thrive and economy flourish.

Development of the whole network will be a long-term project which will be delivered in phases. We propose that phase one be a tram that will connect Bradford and Leeds and St James’s University Hospital with South Leeds.

A phased approach has proven successful in other city regions which have delivered Mass Transit systems of a similar size and scale, like Manchester and the West Midlands.

Delivering phases in a sequenced approach will help maintain our momentum and enable the network to grow over time to meet the travel demands of people in the region and deliver long lasting benefits.

Mass Transit will be a considerable investment and would deliver substantial benefits to West Yorkshire, for generations to come.

The government has allocated an initial £200 million to develop our Mass Transit plans between now and 2027. This would cover design, consultation, environmental appraisal, consenting and some initial enabling works.

Phase one is planned to begin construction in 2028 and begin operation by the early 2030s.

Before building work can begin, there are a series of consultation and legal processes we need to complete.

Our consultation on the options for initial routes has now closed. Once the emerging preferred routes have been chosen, we will be holding a further consultation in early 2026. There will be plenty of opportunities to have your say and help shape Mass Transit.

The consultations will help inform the ongoing work we will be doing to prepare our Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) submissions, the legal process that provides consent for us to start construction.

2021: We consulted on the Connectivity Plan and Mass Transit Vision 2040, which asked for views on proposed corridors.

2022 – 2023: We asked for your views on a revised version of the Mass Transit Vision 2040 document.

2024: We consulted on proposed route options for phase one Mass Transit.

Next steps: We will evaluate the results from the phase one consultation along with ongoing environmental assessment and design refinements to determine an emerging preferred scheme for the Leeds line and the Bradford line. The full consultation outcome report can be found on our Your Voice site.