Leeds trolleybus scheme

[timelesstable]

Leeds is to become the first UK city to get a modern trolleybus system, it has been confirmed.

Plans for the city's £250m scheme, which were first discussed in 2007, have been approved by the Transport Secretary Justine Greening

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-18724776

[malcolm]

Will they be British built Trolleybuses or like the new Trams in Blackpool of German origin.

[A1YBG]

If from uk most likely to be wrightbus and u never knew could be a modern version of the streetcar!

[timelesstable]

So according to the BBC the Trolly scheme starts out at a £250M scheme no doubt in six months time it will be nearer £400M!

Currently Central Government will contribute £173.5M so that leaves the residents of Leeds who might benefit or those of wider West Yorks to find the other £76.5M

Anyone know what the Metro Budget is for this year?

Looking at a Wakefield Council tax bill circa £15M is included for WY PTE payments, not clear if this is Wakefields share or the total

[angrycommuter]

If / when this does get built I understand that the first route will be Holt Park to Stourton. I'm presuming that a new depot will have to be built somewhere along the route for these buses. Does anyone know where this will be?

[Arriva Wakefield]

Jul 6, 2012 9:18:35 GMT 1 angrycommuter said:

If / when this does get built I understand that the first route will be Holt Park to Stourton. I'm presuming that a new depot will have to be built somewhere along the route for these buses. Does anyone know where this will be?

Surely Hunslet Park would be able to have some wiring erected, but even if not, would have thought that some short "battery" movements would be achievable like the London vehicles could.

[Burnside]

Depends on the route.

If the route to Stourton heads out past Carlsberg Tetley's and towards Thwaite Gate, it's going right past Hunslet Park anyway.

[timelesstable]

Jul 6, 2012 11:43:53 GMT 1 Burnside said:

Depends on the route.

If the route to Stourton heads out past Carlsberg Tetley's and towards Thwaite Gate, it's going right past Hunslet Park anyway.

Am I missing something, where does it say First will be operating the Trams

[mollman]

Jul 5, 2012 20:24:40 GMT 1 A1YBG said:

If from uk most likely to be wrightbus and u never knew could be a modern version of the streetcar!

[Deleted]

The vehicles could be a Wright StreetCar with a chassis and electrics from Swiss company Hess as Las Vegas have Wright StreetCar bodied Hess hybrids and Hess do make trolleybuses for Eastern Europe.

[lbaspotter]

Oh no not FTR's again.

[SF07]

Metro have uploaded an updated video of animation of what the trolleybus will look like running through Leeds:

[timelesstable]

Jul 10, 2012 10:42:39 GMT 1 SF07 said:

Metro have uploaded an updated video of animation of what the trolleybus will look like running through Leeds:

Where have all the cars gone!

Looks good in principle but how well will it all work in pratice!

[leeds]

what routes will they take

[A1YBG]

They must be some bend on these. Notice the back end does a 90o turn sharply lol

[SF07]

Jul 10, 2012 16:23:18 GMT 1 leeds said:

what routes will they take

Holt Park/Bodington - Stourton via City centre



Trolleybus website can be found below:

www.ngtmetro.com/

[driver6540]

What a waste of tax payers money.

[timelesstable]

Jul 11, 2012 22:29:02 GMT 1 driver6540 said:

What a waste of tax payers money.

While I agree it makes a pleasant change for it to be wasted in the Yorkshire region rather than London and the South East.

[ratty]

Yes it is nice to get one over London and the south east. However, perhaps its just me, but unless the trolleys are running on virtually their own right of way, how on earth are they going to be (apart from carbon footprint) better than the existing diesel buses.
Mind you the DOT are pretty good at wasting taxpayers money. Classic example £100 million+ on a sea front tramway on the Fylde coast, that in Winter will really struggle to prove its worth. Whilst the new trams look good and are well filled during the day in season, Jan/Feb they will be empty. Would I have spent the money? Yes, but not as much. A lot of work was needed, but, the big proud option has been taken instead of the rational option.
I suppose the DOT had to try and impress in Leeds where a tram system ha been chucked out, and the DOT see this as a really worth while consolation prize.

[dwarfer1979]

This scheme was intended to be an electrically powered bus rapid transit with a lot of dedicated running track as it is effectively the tram scheme with cheaper works & vehicles. How much of the dedicated line has survived the cost cutting needed to get it funded by the DfT I'm not sure but there is likely to be significant off street running.

[ratty]

OK to be fair, that does not seem so bad, but its still the poor mans alternative to what was originally intended. Having said that, if there is a lot of construction needed, then will the sum be neccessarily a lot different from constructing the tram infrastructure? I am presuming there will be bits where the cables are not, and the buses will run on other means. If thats not the case you will have all the relevent overhead and mains equipment, which you would have with the tram, and look at Cambridge if the scheme is to be guided bus, that cost a fortune just to run buses on. I hope it is succesful, and makes getting into Leeds a lot easier, and easing congestion. The trouble is that the great British public have to get themselves committed to using it. Here in Blackpool, the common complaints are:- that they didn't run often enough, but now they do during the day, and why are there so few seats I always have to stand? Wonder if the same people when they go abroad complain about the lack of seats? Probably not. This is assuming they are to be standee type vehicles of course.

[lbaspotter]

So what year will this be ?

[timelesstable]

Jul 12, 2012 18:13:31 GMT 1 @lbaspotter said:

So what year will this be ?

If you had taken the time and trouble to follow the initial link at the start of the thread you would have found what you wanted to know.

Work starts in 2016 and is expected to be completed by 2018

That's the last question I will be answering for you

[Craig]

Are the residents of Headingley and daily users of the A660 looking forward to the work starting? If you thought that Kirkstall Road was bad...

I notice the Headingley proposed route still contains the original Supertram idea of routing the service behind the Arndale Centre but I know this was always going to be quite problematic. I wonder what in the end will happen with that.

Is there are any particular reason why Holt Park and Ireland Wood were thrown into the mix? Just because that was a bit cheaper than other options? I do get the feeling with this that Metro would have happily signed off a service between Harewood House and Wetherby so long as it guaranteed that Leeds had some kind of trolleybus system in place.

[dwarfer1979]

Jul 12, 2012 13:09:16 GMT 1 ratty said:

OK to be fair, that does not seem so bad, but its still the poor mans alternative to what was originally intended. Having said that, if there is a lot of construction needed, then will the sum be neccessarily a lot different from constructing the tram infrastructure? I am presuming there will be bits where the cables are not, and the buses will run on other means. If thats not the case you will have all the relevent overhead and mains equipment, which you would have with the tram, and look at Cambridge if the scheme is to be guided bus, that cost a fortune just to run buses on.

You give me Cambridge, I give you Edinburgh which is even more over-run running later and will only be a third of what was originally planned - poor project management & dire contractor relations resulting in litigation or removal have blighted both projects but at least the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway is up and running to its full orginal spec, and has been very succesful at passenger growth (without the delayed housing developments that were supposed to coincide but have not yet even started). It is the poor mans alternative and whilst it will have the overhead like a tram it doesn't need engineering to the same standard (trams are covered by rail safety standards just like apply on the ECML pushing up costs unncessarilly) and in theory doesn't require the moving/rebuiliding of utilities to the same extent which push up costs of UK Light Rail so much higher than in Europe (where the utility companies pay for any such change). The vehicles should also be cheaper to purchase again reducing costs. It should be cheaper than a tram but more expensive than a guided busway (though think of the affect spending that sort of money on normal bus routes could have - they could even afford to introduce Quality Contracts properly if they wanted!) though it still has to get through planning permission that will delay it and push up costs (Europe can get such a scheme funded, planned & built in the time the UK takes to just do the planning permission phase). However whether it ends up like Cambridge or Edinburgh depends on how well the authorites have done the planning and project management.