£275 million trolleybus plan proposed

Date: 28/10/2009

A Leeds trolleybus programme is being proposed this week to government, for possible operation by 2015.

Transport provider Metro is proposing a 22.5 kilometre network of trolley lines be put down in Leeds at a cost of £275 million.

Park and ride lots at the edges of Leeds would be linked to the city centre in the plan, with each trolleybus capable of transporting 160 people each trip via a network of electrical overhead wires.

The Department for Transport is expected to have a decision on the plan by the end of the year, according to Metro.

A regional funding allocation is expected to pick up some 90 per cent of the costs associated with the plan, with Leeds City Council and Metro footing the rest, reports the BBC.

The scheme would be the first trolleybus system in Britain since the Bradford trolleybus line closed in 1972.

Leeds proposed a supertram public transit system to the Department for Transport that was rejected for being too expensive in the mid-2000s.