A popular complaint among British rail enthusiasts is that Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system. In fact, the reality is worse: seven of the top ten cities in Western Europe with no mass transit system are British. We are trailing sluggishly behind our European neighbours, and this is about much more than trainspotting, or the green war on private vehicles.
The number of people who can reach the centre of any city within 30 minutes is directly tied to that city’s productivity. We know that increased connectivity means increased productivity, and we also know that the UK is in a growth emergency. These facts are not unrelated.
In cities across Britain, local groups have been campaigning for more and better transport, sometimes for decades. In Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle the campaigns advocate for extensions to existing successful projects. In Leeds, the residents are merely asking for a tram system that has already been approved – twice.
Nationally, we are watching slack-jawed and incredulous as the utterly fabulous invoice for HS2 climbs to heights so inherently silly that the accusation of incompetence feels inadequate. Its reach has been shortened to the exclusion of Manchester and Leeds, but the cost continues to expand with the familiar inevitability of higher taxes and death. Given the abundance of examples across the world of successful high-speed rail infrastructure, this entire fiasco has been such an embarrassment to the British state that of course those managing the project have received knighthoods. Explaining that to our children might be tricky.
Given this climate of stagnation, it is unsurprising that East West Rail (EWR), a project designed to connect three internationally significant cities, has also withered on the vine. The section of the rail line between Oxford and Milton Keynes was completed in December 2024, and has been carrying freight since June 2025. There is also a brand new station at Winslow. Notwithstanding the fact that the station cost a ludicrous £5million for an ugly cube, the rail connection should be a coup for people living in the area. Currently, travelling the 20 miles between Oxford and Winslow requires a one-and-a-half-hour bus journey, but the same distance could be covered by a train in 30 minutes.
The problem for the people of Winslow, Oxford, Milton Keynes and every other town and village along the line is that not a single passenger train has run a service yet. Operations were halted by a union dispute with Chiltern Railways over who should be responsible for opening the train doors. That same dispute now exists between the union and the government. Until recently, the government was content to blame Chiltern for the lack of a resolution, but, in September, it took Chiltern into public ownership. This means the responsibility to open this rail connection, which has already cost us over a billion pounds (and is still climbing), sits with it.
This should be a high-profile national scandal. The government’s figures that supported the case for EWR predicted 160,000 new jobs for the Oxford-Cambridge arc and a £78million boost for the economy. This would be transformative for the region: the nature of the businesses that cluster around two of the world’s most revered universities would mean that the UK’s technology sector could compete with the rest of the world. As things stand, it costs us a minimum of one million pounds extra every year to guard the empty and useless station at Winslow. Every media outlet should be running stories on this inaction and incompetence every day that it remains unresolved.
The reason that they aren’t was explained to me in a Westminster pub a few weeks ago. One billion pounds of taxpayer money spent with no return, and £1million added to the bill every year, no longer enrages the public. After all, this is small beer compared with the £102 billion blown so far on HS2. The numbers are now so large and fanciful that they have become meaningless. How can people conceive of one billion pounds, never mind £100 billion in real terms? In modern Britain, that doesn’t even buy you a functioning railway.
Every day these projects are not completed is another day our cities aren’t providing opportunities. One hundred and sixty thousand jobs in the Oxford-Cambridge arc, many in emerging industries, are currently just a concept, when they should be a reality.
This is the vision of Britain that Looking for Growth (LFG) is chasing. Recently, LFG Edinburgh successfully made the case to local residents that the plans for the northern extension of the tram line should not be shelved in favour of the southern stretch, because, in modern Britain, it should be an anathema that we have to choose. LFG Leeds is building its proposal for the tram there – something that was promised when the Jubilee line was extended, more than 25 years ago.
We used to build 200 miles of railway every year. There is no reason why it should be so difficult and so expensive today. Britain must be rescued from its malaise, from the managed decline imposed on it by our political class for so long. It is possible to transform Britain. We just need a political class capable of unleashing our talent, and our people.
Lucy Rogers is the head of community at Looking for Growth, the political movement to end decline and save Britain.