Leeds cuts £250m to resurrect Supertram

Leeds is attempting to resurrect its Supertram light rail scheme with £250m-worth of cost cuts.

Although transport minister Alistair Darling axed the Supertram in July for being “unaffordable”, its backers hope their proposed savings will persuade him to reinstate funding.

Metro (the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority) and Leeds City Council claimed this week that they can bring the costs of the scheme “very close to the £355m originally pledged by the government in 2001”. They also said the revised scheme meets the National Audit Office’s recent recommendations on light rail scheme financing.

Kieran Preston, director general of Metro, said: “Revisiting the way we approach some of the engineering work, particularly relating to utilities, postponing construction of the 7km south line, and creating a better balance of risk sharing for the operation of the tram system has enabled us to cut the bids significantly.”

The Leeds Supertram plan is for a 30-year public private partnership (PPP) to design, build, maintain and operate a 21km electrically powered light rail network providing public transport along three of the most heavily used routes into the city. The system is expected to carry 22 million passengers a year.

However, a key concern for the two long-suffering bidders – Momentis (FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation UK, Bouygues and Jarvis Facilities) and Airelink (Arriva Passenger Services, Siemens Transportation Systems, Amec and Transdev) – has been the unfair allocation of risk.

Under the new proposals, the risk is more evenly spread between the bidder, the council and the Department for Transport, and will be reviewed every five years. A Supertram spokesman said: “We have now removed the risk of things outside of the operator’s control, including wage rises, fuel cost increases, terrorism and miscalculations about patronage.

“We have worked hard with the bidders to agree the new scheme and ensure we can make these savings.”

Local politicians and transport bosses, who have garnered support and endorsement for the Supertram, will now be pressing for a meeting with Darling “to discuss how the revised bid can be taken forward”.

Metro chairman and city councillor Stanley King said: “This is a wonderful, forward-looking scheme and we must not be held back any longer.”

* Two other light rail schemes were scrapped in the summer – the South Hampshire Rapid Transit (SHRT) and the Manchester Metrolink extension. Metrolink is also discussing a cost-cutting plan, while Hampshire councillors have vowed to “explore every option” to reinstate SHRT.