Cash call for city trolleybus scheme goes to Whitehall

PLANS to introduce electric-powered trolleybuses into Leeds will move a step closer on Friday.

Transport bosses in the city have drawn up plans for a 14-mile trolleybus network to provide a greener strategy to combating growing traffic levels in the city.

Modern ‘bendy’ trolleybuses carrying up to 160 people, powered by overhead electric lines could be an everyday sight on Leeds’s streets if Ministers give the scheme the go-ahead when it is submitted on Friday.

Known as NGT, which stands for New Generation Transport, the new trolleybus network would link two new park-and-ride sites at the edge of Leeds with the city centre, and would also connect the city’s two hospitals and universities.
 
In Leeds, modern trolleybuses, which are easily accessible for wheelchairs and buggies, would use dedicated lanes wherever possible to help avoid congestion, making journeys quicker and more reliable.

Almost £250m, representing 90% of the scheme’s costs, has already been earmarked for NGT, which now requires Department for Transport approval to progress. The remaining 10% will be a local contribution from Metro and Leeds City Council.

Environment Minister and Leeds MP Hilary Benn will join Stuart Archbold, chairman of Leeds-based Archbold Logistics and the city’s Integrated Transport Partnership, and Coun Chris Greaves, deputy chairman of Metro, the body which coordinates West Yorkshire’s transport services, will be at Leeds station on Friday to see the bid for money put on a train for London.

The trolleybus scheme was developed after the Government turned down a Supertram scheme in Leeds in 2004.

If the trolleybus bid is successful, construction could begin in 2013 and the UK’s first new trolleybuses could be operating by 2015.