About the project

About the project

A part of our Connecting Leeds vision for the city, Leeds City Council and its partners - including West Yorkshire Combined Authority and bus operators - are planning significant investment in our transport network.

In 2016, we started a conversation about transport in Leeds. Over 8,000 of you told us what changes are important to you and for the city. You said you wanted wider travel choices and more reliable public transport, with more priority given to buses and a city centre that is accessible to everyone.

We have since developed ambitious plans that will give people much more appealing alternatives to the car by making bus services quicker and more reliable, while also ensuring that journeys on foot or by bike are more convenient, attractive and safer.

The first stage of our plans involves investment in five key bus routes across the city – including between Alwoodley and Leeds, via Moortown, Chapel Allerton and Chapeltown.

Some buses on this route run via Scott Hall Road/King Lane, whilst others operate along Harrogate Road. All are often delayed in traffic at busy times of the day which makes services unreliable, and improvements are also needed to provide better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.

In the longer term, we have ambitions to deliver a new mass transit network for Leeds which will complement the improvements to the bus network we plan to deliver in the short term.

Early in 2018 we held an initial public consultation to outline our plans for this and other routes. Across the city there were more than 14,000 contributions providing feedback on issues and our initial ideas.

What you told us in 2018

During the initial consultation, many people said the plans for the Alwoodley to Leeds route would benefit buses and bus users, as well as cyclists and pedestrians. However, some concerns were raised, which we responded to:

Bus lanes will cause more congestion and rat running - We have since reviewed our bus lane proposals and scaled back our plans, targeting areas offering the greatest benefit. Where space permits, we have also changed our approach to delivery by widening the road to accommodate new bus lanes without reducing the number of lanes available for general traffic. This will enable buses to bypass the worst delays, without removing a general traffic lane.

Remove on-street parking to ease congestion instead of introducing new bus lanes - In some locations along the route, on-street parking causes unnecessary delays and introducing new parking restrictions would increase the amount of usable road space. In some places, away from key junctions, freeing up that road space for use by general traffic will benefit all road users, including buses. In other locations, it is necessary to restrict access to that road space, particularly where other causes of delay in the vicinity dictate a need to give more priority to buses.

The proposals do not address all the problems along the route - Feedback from the initial consultation highlighted other areas along the route where people wanted improvements. We have since expanded our proposals to cover sections of King Lane, where buses are often delayed in traffic at peak times – our proposals now include improvements that will enable junctions there to operate more efficiently, making journey times for buses and other motorists more reliable. In other locations where buses are already able to bypass the worst delays using the bus guideways, we plan to make only limited changes since the key focus of our investment is to make bus services quicker and more reliable, not to alleviate all congestion for general traffic.

Autumn 2018 consultation

After considering feedback, we identified an opportunity to bring forward some localised improvements in Alwoodley and Moortown more quickly, whilst work to identify solutions along the rest of the route was ongoing. We held a further consultation on more detailed plans for these areas in Autumn 2018, and received almost 3,000 contributions in response. An update is now provided on the Early Interventions Update page.

February 2019 consultation

We updated our plans along the rest of the route, taking into consideration the feedback received during the first consultation and further analysis carried out in response to particular concerns. The proposals presented were capable of reducing bus journey times by up to 13 minutes at peak times, making bus journeys more reliable and attractive for the 8,500 people who travel along the route by bus each day.

Over 7000 people visited the website, 300 attended events we held along the route and 850 pieces of feedback were provided. We have responded to the feedback provided on the proposals for Alwoodley Park & Ride and Scott Hall Road and you can see the latest plans on the have your say page.

September 2019

Following the analysis of the latest feedback you provided we refined our proposals for Scott Hall Road between Potternewton Lane and Buslingthorpe Lane. We also shared our latest plans for a Park & Ride site at Alwoodley Gates. Thank you for the comments received on these updates which are now being considered.

Further information

We have now added an update on our proposals for Harrogate Road at Potternewton Lane in Chapel Allerton which we plan to implement later in 2020.

Our aim is to give Leeds a bus network to be proud of. If we are successful, more passengers will enable operators to invest more in new and better services, ensuring continual improvements that will benefit everyone.

This website is part of a wider consultation on key routes into Leeds city centre. After you have commented, please explore other routes and comment on them through leedstransport.commonplace.is