This is one of the main problems for me (as well as "which roads can trams fit along") - it's easy for people out of town to say "Leeds is a big place, so lets build a tram network there", but where's the route crying out for a tram?
Headingley is an obvious example of a busy corridor, there's a bus every couple of minutes from the city centre as far as Woodies on Otley Road (i.e. top end of the Otley Road Run), but these then fan out into serving Adel, Cookridge, Holt Park, Guisley, Ilkley, Skipton etc, so there's not one obvious destination.
There are frequent buses from Pudsey (on the west side of town) to Seacroft (on the east side of town), but via different routes. Maybe something like the 16 from Bramley to Whinmoor would be worth considering. Maybe branches at Jimmys up to Harehills and Oakwood, one at Armley Gyratory towards Holbeck, Beeston, White Rose? Keep it simple and focus on just one route through the city centre to minimise disruption/costs?
But then, is this intended to replace shortish distance bus journeys or is it for P&R to the outskirts of the city (like the previous Stourton proposal)? Do you cater for one obvious market (like the relative straight lines of most Metrolink routes) or compromise with dog-leg kinks to try to serve as many markets as possible (like Supertram)? Both have their merits, but that's a debate that needs to be had before people decide that "we need a tram". For example, should a Stourton service (P&R next to the M1/ M62/ M261) be there to whisk the "out of towners" into central Leeds as soon as possible or divert through Hunslet/ Holbeck to serve local passengers?
Assuming that you are talking about times to central Stocksbridge (?) then the current tram takes about twenty one minutes from Cathedral to Middlewood (
https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/Supertram/Supertram Printer Friendly 2018 Yellow Route Timetable_20122017.pdf) and the feeder bus (SL1/SL1A) takes about twenty five minutes.
Add on five minutes to connect between the two modes of transport (both every twelve minutes off-peak, every ten minutes peak) and you're still talking well under an hour - not sure where you get the 1h25 from (in good traffic)?