26.11.15
Government pledges extra £20m funding for TfN
The chancellor has pledged a further £20m to fund the operation of Transport for the North (TfN) over the current Parliament.
George Osborne, during his Spending Review, said that the government would be extending the Summer Budget commitment to fund TfN with a total of £50m.
“This will further accelerate the pace of progress, as TfN develops plans to transform the north’s transport connections and help forge a single regional economy,” he said.
Osborne added that the government is building on the progress already made by TfN by providing £150m of funding to support the delivery of smart and integrated ticketing across local transport and rail services in the north.
As part of its work, TfN will produce a regional implementation plan, in partnership with the DfT, by Budget 2016. This will support TfN’s plans for a ticketing system that makes it simple and easy for people to travel across the North by bus, tram, metro and rail.
Osborne said the government supports the upcoming publication of TfN’s interim report, which will set out the rapid progress TfN has made in the last six months across all elements of its Northern Transport Strategy, as well as the significant steps taken to develop TfN as an organisation.
This includes appointing Merseytravel’s David Brown as TfN’s its first chief executive, the upcoming appointment of a new chair, and the introduction into Parliament this month of legislation to put TfN on a statutory footing by 2017.
Recently, Lord Adonis said the work of TfN will bring transformational change by making the sum of the northern city regions more than their parts.
Lord Adonis, best known for initiating the work on HS2, and heading the newly launched National Infrastructure Commission, linked the future work of TfN with the ongoing developments as part of the Northern Powerhouse, set to transform the connectivity between all northern regions.
RTM contacted TfN for a comment on the extra funding, but at the time of publication had received no reply.
(Image: c. Ingy The Wingy)