Traffic & Transport
‘Field of Dreams stuff’: will Leeds finally get its trams after decades of promises? | Transport
It is 1993 and a young James Lewis is going to do work experience in Leeds city council’s highways department. His team, Leeds United FC, have only just relinquished the title of defending English champions. And the council is marching on with big ideas: putting the abandoned 1980s Metroline tram plan behind them, and forgetting the unloved 1991 concept of a Leeds Advanced Transit skytrain. The Supertram is the coming thing.
“I remember these drawers and drawers, full of big paper plans,” says Lewis, 33 years on. Lewis is now leader of the city council, and it is all done online. Much of the city centre has been transformed, rebuilt and pedestrianised. Leeds United have never threatened to be champions again. But as Lewis stands outside Elland Road stadium, explaining how to cross the adjacent motorway, one thing has not changed. What Leeds really wants is to build a tram.
Funding for that Supertram was eventually promised by the incoming Labour government only to be withdrawn in 2005, deemed not worth the expense. A cheaper alternative, a trolleybus network, was dropped in 2016.
Now the government has given fresh backing for the latest iteration, West Yorkshire Mass Transit. As outlined by the mayor of the combined authority, Tracy Brabin, over the past four years, that should be an integrated network of buses around two tram lines, one through south Leeds and another linking neighbouring Bradford.
Development money totalling £200m has been given, and future funding available from £2.1bn allocated to the city region. But, after warnings in a critical independent review of the plans carried out for the Treasury, the government has also insisted that West Yorkshire adhere to its strict process – rather than what Brabin likes to call her “trailblazer approach”.
That means working up a fresh business case, proving the need for trams not buses, and then reheating consultations. This will push the opening date for any tram back into the late 2030s. Some see it as proof of serious commitment; others, a familiar story of eternal delay.
Brabin says it was disappointing, and some, she acknowledges, “are now saying, that’s it, of course we’re not going to get anything, it’s cancelled”. She insists it has “just knocked us on two years, but we are still on track”.
Leeds is the biggest city in Europe without a mass transit system. It had trams, once: doubledeckers that ran through city centre streets and up leafy tracks, canned in 1959. There are wide roads aplenty, partly the inheritance of 1970s town planning for a booming “motorway city”. The M621 flanking Elland Road is now seen as having cut off the south of the city from prosperity.
Buses come this way, but on a match day, most people walk the two miles from the centre to the stadium. No route is pinned down yet, but Lewis says a tram line will probably “float over or under the motorway, a bit like the Docklands Light Railway”. Previous proposals, he says, have faltered through trying to squeeze trams on to existing bus routes and roads. This, he says, is going to be different: anchoring the city and linking institutions such as the White Rose shopping centre, the stadium, the main railway station and St James’s hospital with what he calls “legible, easy to use, high-quality public transport”.
He says of the latest delay: “Rachel Reeves has allocated a lot of money. It was someone taking a very clear-eyed view of how long it takes to get a scheme through a public inquiry. It wasn’t someone sitting in London saying: ‘Leeds can wait another five years.’”
Not all are convinced. Greg Marsden, a professor at Leeds University’s Institute for Transport Studies, says: “We’re taking 18 years to build a tram line. How can that possibly be the case?”
The latest scheme was in itself a sop for the loss of HS2: the planned north-eastern leg of the high-speed rail network linking London, Manchester and Leeds. It was ended under Boris Johnson, in 2021; better, he said, for West Yorkshire to get on with mass transit.
Since then, says Marsden: “There’s been quite a lot of process, proposals for a whole network, consultation. To be saying we’re not yet in a position to go ahead smacks of a lack of real commitment.”
Tom Forth, a co-founder of the Data City company information group in Leeds, says the “the root cause is that the Department for Transport is based in London, the Treasury is based in London, the political decision was taken in London. There needs to be local tax-raising. If we had devolution we would get this stuff done.”
Forth and Marsden point to France, which has built tram systems paid for and decided locally rather than having to prove the value for money to a sceptical Treasury.
“Do we believe that, even if the numbers don’t look compelling on a benefit cost ratio, that it would actually change Leeds, it would change connectivity in the region?” Marsden says. “There has to be an element of build-it-and-they-will-come, Field of Dreams stuff.”
Forth says it feeds into “that lingering sense that Britain can’t build anything.”. The Heathrow third runway is more explicable, he says.“Lots of people don’t want it built. But Leeds really does want the tram.”
The Leeds United investor and director Pete Lowy is a vocal backer. Work to expand the stadium by 15,000 seats is under way, and mass transit will have a major bearing on how they develop the surrounding site – potentially bringing in £1bn of investment to build 2,500 new homes, work, retail and leisure spaces. He says: “If the tram goes ahead and the city gets this right, then we can help transform that part of Leeds. This is about much more than match days. It is a real opportunity for Leeds to bring together infrastructure, housing, investment and regeneration in a way that could have a lasting impact.”
Leeds South Bank was last month shortlisted as one of the government’s new towns, potentially accelerating the growth of the city. The higher-rise centre has spread south, reaching empty brownfield sites and industrial estates at Sweet Street, the location of the legendary ex-striker Peter Lorimer’s Commercial Inn. Closed, ransacked and firebombed since 2018, it has recently been adorned with “positive energy” murals by the Yorkshire artist Kid Acne, a landmark for a neighbouring development site for offices and 1,350 flats.
Not all of the Leeds public appears convinced of the need for mass transit. A builder leaving the Sweet Street site says: “Leeds is not big enough for a tram. It’s not like Manchester; that’s massive.”
Gladys Crosby, studying to be a personal trainer, is walking home to Holbeck. A direct link to the A&E across the city would help, she says, but she does not hold out much hope: “My whole life they’ve said it’s going to get better – I’m 24 now.”
Over in Armley, the inner city side of Reeves’s Leeds West constituency primed to benefit from the Bradford line, an elderly couple is waiting for an Uber. Would they welcome the tram? “Ooh yes,” she says. But the man says: “They closed down the year I was born. It’ll never happen.”
At the far end of the second planned line, Henri Murison, the chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, is standing on a windswept road bridge above Bradford interchange, pointing out a new building. A large clinic is the start of what he hopes will be a swathe of further urban regeneration, the city’s South Gateway project, prompted by the tram. “This is not hypothetical: that is provable investment coming in right now on the back of promised transport development.”
In Murison’s reading, the delay is welcome: doing it by the letter of Treasury process with ministerial backing makes it less likely to meet the fate of the 1990s Supertram.
The pledge of “spades in the ground” by 2028, for preparatory works of some kind, remains, Brabin says. Until then, the team will focus their energy on improving existing bus services.
Buses will come under public control in 2027. According to Rob Johnson of the Centre for Cities, right now “the single most consequential thing Leeds could do is to increase frequencies on its existing bus services”. In a study he found less than half of the city’s 800,000 residents, about 390,000, were well connected, and better buses alone would connect more than new trams.
But Lewis and Brabin argue the point of the tram is not only to improve existing journeys but to underpin massive development.
For Brabin, trams are “more attractive, they take more people, they deliver more jobs and growth. They’re more reliable.
“I promised tram, and tram is what we’re going to get.”
Traffic & Transport
Number of cloned number plates on UK roads at record high, data shows | Transport
The number of reported “cloned” vehicles involved in offences on UK roads has reached a record high, official data shows.
More than 11,400 drivers contacted the DVLA last year after being issued with fines for offences they said they did not recognise or accept responsibility for – most of which are believed to be down to cloning, where a number plate is copied fraudulently on similar vehicles to avoid enforcement cameras.
The number of complaints about misattribution was 9% higher than in 2024 and almost double the figure recorded in 2018, according to the RAC motoring organisation, which analysed data obtained under freedom of information requests.
The rising figures underscore concerns about the number of illegal number plates in use, allowing criminals to evade detection and dangerous drivers to avoid being caught.
Although drivers should provide number plate suppliers with the V5C vehicle logbook and proof of identity, an investigation last year uncovered more than 130 official suppliers in the UK willing to sell cloned versions, which allow drivers to dodge police and congestion charges.
Cloning vehicles has left many innocent car owners having to struggle to prove they were not responsible when enforcement camera images apparently caught their vehicle committing offences.
A parallel concern is the use of “ghost” plates which are designed to be unreadable by the UK’s 18,000 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, which enforce safety measures such as speed limits or lane closures on smart motorways.
The RAC said the UK needed to overhaul an outdated and poorly regulated number plate system. Its head of policy, Simon Williams, said: “If number plate suppliers were carrying out all the checks they’re supposed to, it would be much harder for dodgy drivers to buy cloned plates in the first place. It’s only when a fine arrives at a vehicle keeper’s home address that they realise someone else is driving around using their vehicle’s number plate illegally.”
He said that more also needed to be done to catch drivers with ghost plates, “whether that’s more police officers being equipped with handheld devices that can detect if plates are unreadable, updating ANPR cameras and introducing higher security standards for number plates and for those who produce them”.
The government last month said there would be a new nationwide crackdown on illegal number plates, with funding from the Department for Transport for a new roads policing team. A new National Roads Policing Coordination Centre would share intelligence as well as trialling new technology such as specialised goggles to detect number plates that have been designed to be unreadable by cameras.
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Drivers using an incorrectly displayed number plate can be fined up to £1,000.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re cracking down on illegal number plates with significant investment in a new roads policing team and innovative tech to stamp out the scourge of cloned numberplates.
“Illegal number plates help facilitate crime, and we are supporting the police to work with the DVLA to make it easier to report these crimes and support victims through a new digital tool.”
Traffic & Transport
‘A big responsibility’: Clifton Suspension Bridge master hails £7.6m renovation | Bristol
The job does not give the holder age-old perks such as the right to drive sheep across the great structure, but the title “bridge master” does have a certain ring to it.
“I don’t tend to say I’m the bridge master when I’m at a party,” said Tristan Ralph, the current holder of the title. “But people do seem to know and bring it up. It’s a job less ordinary, isn’t it? It’s a Victorian sounding title and people are really, really interested.”
There is, however, nothing ceremonial about the title. Ralph is in charge of maintaining and running the Clifton Suspension Bridge, a UK feat of engineering, without any public money.
“It does feel a big responsibility,” said Ralph. “When the chairman of the trustees rang to say we’d like you to do it, you suddenly feel the pressure. It’s so famous and people in Bristol, quite rightly, are proud and almost possessive of it. Bristolians think: ‘It’s our bridge.’”
The bridge master – and the not-for-profit charity the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust – have the task of maintaining the bridge “in perpetuity”. “I’m a temporary custodian,” Ralph said. “When I’m finished, I have to make sure it is handed on in just [as] good a condition or better than I inherited it.”
Ralph, a bridge engineer by profession, was speaking to mark the conclusion of a large refurbishment project that has taken two and a half years and involved hand-painting more than 4,000 original iron chain links and installing an energy-efficient lighting system. It has cost about £7.5m. “It’s been a big job,” he said. “But it’s come pretty much bang on budget, which is rare these days.”
That is important because, to many visitors’ surprise, the bridge does not receive public funding. “The upkeep of the bridge, the running of it, the salary costs and everything are all paid only by our toll money,” said Ralph. “People think that we might get something from local or central government. But, no, it’s just the toll money.”
Motorised vehicles – including motorcycles – pay £1 to cross the bridge. There is no charge for pedestrians, cyclists or horse riders. As well as being a beautiful structure, it is also a vital part of Bristol and North Somerset’s transport system.
Ralph said: “It draws the tourists in. We get visitors from hundreds of countries every year but primarily, it’s still a vital piece of local infrastructure. If the bridge wasn’t here, the difference it would make to Bristol traffic would be incredible. We average over 8,000 vehicles a day still. Maintaining it as a transport link is utterly vital.”
The end of the refurbishment does not mean Ralph can rest on his laurels and spend more time hobnobbing with members of the Bridge Owners Forum.
“In a few years, we’ll need to paint the underside of the bridge. The under-bridge gantry unit itself will be replaced over the coming years. So there’s always something. We need to keep on top of things. It’s like your house or your car. If you just ignore it, don’t do things for a couple of years, they start breaking down.”
As in most walks of life, the climate emergency is a challenge Ralph and the trust are having to face. “We were monitoring the bridge daily in the summer with the very hot weather. And maybe if the bridge was being designed today, there would be a little bit more robustness around wind.”
The prevailing south-west wind is not usually a problem and the bridge rarely has to close but if it blows directly through the Avon Gorge it can be more difficult. “We need to keep an eye at both the magnitude of any wind events but also their frequency,” Ralph said.
The engineer admires the bridge’s designers, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel. “It’s remarkably advanced for its time.”
And there is no sign that its days are numbered, largely because the Victorians did not skimp. Ralph said: “There are three layers of chains. The original Brunel design only had two, but because it went from a timber design to a cast-iron deck, they upped it to three.
“There’s a little bit of comfort in there. Today there might be pressure to say, well, can you keep it to two, but in Victorian times they did like to add a little bit of meat on the bones.
“It doesn’t have a finite life. There’s no end date in our plans. We all just keep it going in the highest standards as we can. It’s in really good condition as long as we keep doing what we need to do, keep our attention on it and don’t let things drift. Forever is a long time but there’s no reason why we have any need to worry at the moment.”
Uber has begun a trial of autonomous vehicles on the streets of Manchester as it looks to bring robotaxis to cities around the UK.
The first self-driving cars are operating, using the technology of its partner firms Pony and Verne, with whom Uber recently launched Europe’s first autonomous taxi service in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
Uber said it was “excited to take this first step toward making this technology accessible to people across the UK”.
In social media posts, Verne said it had “started our autonomous vehicle testing in Manchester”, while Pony said there were “plans to bring robotaxis to the city” and that testing was under way.
The tests involve the company mapping the streets of the city in north-west England with a safety driver behind the wheel and no passengers.
Limited passenger services started last month in London, but with a safety driver in the front seat of cars supplied by Wayve under Transport for London’s licensing rules for private hire vehicles.
The next steps are unclear. Opposition from Uber drivers, their unions and the capital’s politicians to the rollout of robotaxis is mounting. The GMB and ADCU unions have both said thousands of drivers jobs will be lost and have called for help for those affected.
A critical report from London assembly’s transport committee this week called for the government to devolve authority over autonomous taxi services.
It said there was “considerable uncertainty about many of the claimed benefits of autonomous passenger vehicles”, and fears over the impact on public transport and congestion, as well as safeguarding and accessibility for disabled passengers.
There has been no official application to launch passenger services in Manchester so far, and the vehicles are operating under government licence via the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the Department for Transport.
A spokesperson for Transport for Greater Manchester said it wanted the city’s taxis to be the safest in the country.
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“New technologies play an increasingly important role in the growth of our city region,” they said. “But they need to be introduced responsibly, safely and with real thought about what it means for our residents.
“Although no applications have been made to operate driverless taxis in the Greater Manchester, we’re aware of potential interest from companies to do so.
“Safety will always be our top priority, and we will need strong assurances that no vehicles will operate on our roads that pose any risk to residents.”
Uber said it expected to offering robotaxi trips in as many as 15 cities worldwide by the end of 2026, mainly in the US and the Middle East.
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