DLA wins £500k contract to advise on public transport system for Leeds

The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive has awarded DLA Piper a £500,000 contract to provide legal advice on the procurement of a public transport system for Leeds.

The advice will include procurement, commercial contract, transport and property law.

The WYPTE – known locally as Metro – and Leeds City Council are planning to construct a trolley vehicle system to be called New Generation Transit (NGT).

NGT will comprise:

  • a North line of 10km length running from Holt Park district centre through the city centre to Leeds Bridge in the south;
  • a South line of 5km length from Leeds Bridge to Stourton.

The majority of the NGT route will be either dedicated to public transport only or for the exclusive use of trolleybuses.

Jacqui Elliott, NGT project lawyer, said an application for a Transport and Works Act Order had been submitted to the Department for Transport and a public inquiry was expected to take place in Spring 2014.

Once the outcome of the TWAO application is known, a procurement exercise will begin to procure one or more contractors to deliver the construction, maintenance and operation of the system.

Elliott said: "This complex, high profile and high value project requires the use of lawyers with substantial transport, procurement, contract and property knowledge and expertise which we are satisfied can be provided by DLA Piper."