The Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, has promised Leeds will get a tram system within the next 10 years.
Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, Mayor Brabin said we will see "spades in the ground" for a mass transit system in the city before the end of her time as mayor. Leeds is the biggest city in all of Western Europe without a mass transit system.
Over the years proposals for a tram network have come and gone. In 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Leeds would receive £200m of 'immediate funding' to plan and build a mass transit system.
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The project was part of the Government's £96bn Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) which was widely criticised by Yorkshire and Northern MPs for falling short of its Levelling Up masterplan promise to break down the North-South divide.
Mayor Brabin has now confirmed that a system will be put into place, with an expected cost of around £2 billion. However, she says this is only possible if the government put forward funding.
She told BBC Radio Leeds: "We're definitely going to see spades in the ground on mass transit before I end up being not mayor.
"We're looking at surface, so trams. The technology, we want to be ahead of the game, we want the best tech, the most innovative, the greenest, the cleanest, and also the cheapest.
"We are going to have an amazing system." When asked if it was a promise that Leeds would be getting the system, Mayor Brabin replied: "Yes, I can promise you because we are already underway.
"I can't promise that the government will continue giving us the funding. It's a £2 billion project, we have £200 million currently to start the work but I am pressing the government to confirm, whoever is the government, that they will continue investing in mass transit."
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