UK Chancellor George Osborne has granted £30m of funding to Transport for the North (TfN), with seamless Oyster-style ticketing across all transport services throughout the northern England.
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The funding, which is proposed for the next three years, will support the new transport body TfN’s running costs, and enable them to advance their work programme.
The government has also committed to establish TfN as a statutory body, with statutory duties to set out its transport policies and investment priorities in a long-term transport strategy for the North.
During his Summer Budget 2015 speech, Osborne also announced that the government is committed to devolving far reaching powers over transport to the north’s mayor-led city regions to deliver fully integrated public transport systems.
The roll-out of Oyster-style smart and integrated ticketing systems are expected to provide people with quicker and easier door-to-door journeys, greater choice, as well as simpler and more flexible fares.
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By GlobalDataOsborne also noted that the £7.2bn investment in transport in the south west was underway.
Meanwhile, commenting on the introduction of Oyster-style ticketing, KPMG in the North chairman Chris Hearld said: "While the introduction of an Oyster card system across the north is a nice gesture in principle, it will do absolutely nothing to alleviate the lack of capacity, and very little to improve the connectivity on our region’s ever-crumbling rail network."
"Businesses across the north are becoming increasingly impatient, and are chomping at the bit to play their part.
"But their role must be underpinned by dramatic improvements to the transport infrastructure across the region to ensure our businesses, people and resources are better connected. Without this, the Northern Powerhouse will not take off."
