If you have no control of funding and financing, you have no control of your own destiny.

It is completely mad that civic leaders & transport planners have to justify, for the umpteenth time, why modern light rail is a good idea...and they have to justify it to the Treasury, which always says "NO!"

April 01, 2026 - 09:52 UTC

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Leeds and Bradford should decide this, should be able to raise money through local taxes and borrowing, and they should be able to implement this. DfT should set standards and unified tram procurement to reduce costs. The Treasury should butt out, they are harmful to UK cities.
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Precisely. What you describe is basically how it works in France, where pretty much every city has built multiple light rail lines since the turn of the millennium. 🚈

The UK funding system for light rail just doesn't work at scale. John Prescott should have sorted this back in the 90s!
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Other UK cities I know well have taken action against traffic congestion: Nottingham (my home), Edinburgh (my 1st job), Manchester (my wife studied there). London (visit all the time). Leeds still feels like the traffic sewer it was when I studied there in early 90s. They need trams.
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Treasury officials aren't transport planners.

They're not urban designers.

They're not urban economists.

They fundamentally do not understand urban agglomeration, environmental psychology, universal design, landscape architecture & many other factors that are shaped by transport investments.
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West Yorkshire could do a Nottingham and bring in a workplace car parking levy. This has funded new trams and buses.

It's also the only blinking way that UK local authorities can raise transport funds locally without having to go cap in hand to the Treasury.
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