Op-Ed column which originally appeared Leeds Business review. 

Going nowhere fast

Annika Jones talk trains, planes and automobiles and why she feels that Leeds is being kept from its full potential as a city.

 

Leeds is big. Big business, big population, big industry, big ambitions. Yet, we tend to fly under the radar, or more accurately not fly at all. Munich, Lyon, Valencia, Naples; all cities you will have heard of, and all the third biggest in their respective countries. Yet, why do so few people outside of the North know of Leeds, let alone anyone abroad? Because we haven’t made the right connections.

 

Our transport network is a house of cards, it didn’t fall down, we just didn’t figure out how to build it up in the first place. Starting with one of the one of the most basic, relied upon networks in almost all major cities; light-rail or underground. We dismantled our tramways in the 1950s, and transport around the city centre has failed to progress in any meaningful way since. This isn’t to say we’ve stopped trying. Central Government pulled the rug out at last-minute from under the Supertram scheme 15 years-ago, and the 2016 plans to see the return of trolleybuses were also kiboshed. As it stands we are the largest city in Europe with no such system in place.

This isn’t just a case getting over ourselves and taking the bus (more on that later). These types of transport systems do more for a city than take people places. They are the fastest, most convenient and cost effective way to get around, and thus are the great equaliser. Nowhere can you find a more condensed, accurate cross-section of the population than the London underground. Where else do politicians, models, drunks, beggars, businessmen and school children stand side by side? It’s transport which is the best available option for all stratas of society, there is no better testament to publicly owned infrastructure than that.

 

Back on the buses, because let’s face it, we don’t have much other option. If you’ve ever tried to cross the road in Leeds and realised that you can’t see past them, you’re in good company because neither can the council. The £270m previously earmarked for the trolleybus scheme is being spent on a ‘transport master plan’, which equates to, you guessed it, more buses. The aim is to have 90% of all services running every ten minutes, so instead of three buses turning up at time same time, you could be lucky enough to have the choice of five or six. That is, of course, unless you’re planning to get home after 11pm; the night bus service stopped in the 1990s. Despite huge developments in city centre dining and nightlife in the years since, council bosses deem them non commercially viable. Quite an odd justification for failing to provide a public service which should aim to keep people safe.  

Getting back to business, Leeds lags behind eternal rival Manchester when it comes to the international market. The argument goes that Leeds-Bradford airport is too far away to be an asset to the business community. Believe it or not, it’s exactly the same distance from Leeds station as Manchester airport is from Manchester piccadilly. A measly 8.5 miles. The real issue is that in Manchester you can catch a 15 minute train, whereas in Leeds you are confined to our beloved buses, a journey that can take up to an hour. Part of the £270 transport masterplan may go to finally establishing a rail link, but bigger changes are going to be needed.

 

Currently there are no flight routes to many of the biggest economic capitals in Europe; Luxembourg, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Zurich. Yet, a whopping ten different destinations in Spain thanks to being home to sun-obsessed Jet2 airways. It’s become moderately successful as a holiday airport and you may feel there’s nothing wrong with that, but it fails to support the city as a resource that feeds our economy in the broader sense. British airways has even reduced the connections to Heathrow to just twice a day. Plans were recently announced to rebrand as ‘Yorkshire’s Airport’, and I honestly think it’s a great idea. If you’re not going to serve Leeds’ growing economy or help cement our place as a great British city, as part of Europe, as part of the world, then by all means take our name off the building.

 

There’s a lot to be said for how Leeds has succeeded in spite of these setbacks, lacking the resources other cities can take for granted. We persevere, and we prosper. But if we can become the UK’s fastest growing economy, the largest business and financial centre outside of London and have the 5th highest quality of life in the country without these connections, where could we be with them? Key decisions have held us back from our full potential, time and again. If more buses is the best we can come up with for a city as great as ours, we’re going nowhere fast.