Ministers look to Nottingham in push for joined-up transport across England
Plans promise easier travel with single-ticket systems and improved connections
Nottingham’s “best in class” public transport is being used as a blueprint for other networks across the country as the Government promises to right the wrongs of past underinvestment.
The city’s publicly owned bus company, Nottingham City Transport, and the NET tram network are being used by the Labour Government to inspire “frictionless” public transport across the wider country.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander visited the city on Wednesday (April 1) to discuss the launch of a new transport strategy, which will give local politicians more powers to help passengers use buses, trams and trains more easily without having to download multiple mobile apps or carry several tickets at once.
Passengers in Nottingham and Derby can already use the Ride app, operated by the East Midlands Combined County Authority, to plan trips and buy bus and tram tickets, as well as hire Lime e-bikes and Dott e-scooters.
“It is one of the reasons I’ve come to Nottingham to launch our better connected strategy which is all about delivering a properly integrated public transport system in England, is because I know Nottingham is really best-in-class when it comes to integration,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
“Here you’ve got integrated ticketing, so you don’t have to buy multiple tickets for bus, tram, and train. You’ve got reliable real-time information. That’s what I want to be rolled out to other parts of the country.”
The East Midlands has been historically underfunded in transport, and promises made for significant infrastructure projects have been broken.
High Speed 2 (HS2) was initially planned to stop in Toton at a brand new East Midlands hub station, before this was cancelled in favour of a stop at the existing East Midlands Parkway by former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
However, Keir Starmer’s predecessor, Tory PM Rishi Sunak, then went on to cancel the entire East Midlands leg of the high-speed rail link, leaving the region high and dry.
The transport secretary told the LDRS she wanted to “right some of the wrongs of the previous Conservative government when it comes to our public transport system and our roads network as well.”
She added: “We’ve got really ambitious plans working with Mayor Claire Ward, we are bringing the headquarters of Great British Railways to Derby, which is going to be a really significant investment in that city.
“It’s a city with a proud railway heritage, incredible talent and skills in the rail supply chain there. I think we are putting our money where our mouth is.
“I do think the combination of a good bus network, a good tram network, plugged in to the national rail network, alongside roads that are maintained, junctions that are appropriately enhanced to relieve those congestion pinch-points. Those are the basics. That’s what this strategy is all about.”
Ms Ward added: “It’s a real role model for the rest of the country because we have a fantastic bus service, indeed one of the best bus services in the country, frequently nominated as that. Brilliant bus drivers, but also integrated with the tram system and our great rail network as well.
“We see this as an example, and that is why we are interested now in what are the opportunities for rural transport to be integrated too.
“In the future we want to see integrated transport in the region.
“The thing we’ve been showing to the Secretary of State is the Ride app, paid for initially by the Government, being developed over the next few years, started here in Nottingham and Derby, a project that is showing those trams, buses, trains, scooters, e-bikes all in real-time. It has been a great success so far with over 15,000 downloads. What we are seeing is the opportunity to expand that over the next few years right across the region.”