I start with a confession. Throughout the thirteen-plus years that I was a Minister, I went just four times on the Tube.

Each of those journeys was to (and from) a Rovers’ away game. These trips were hardly a typical London Transport experience.

That was it. I never went on a bus the entire time.

When I returned to normality, I was amazed by what I discovered. London’s trains, tubes and buses had gone through a revolution.

The services had become more frequent, more reliable, and much safer – of fundamental importance for youngsters, women and the elderly.

Completely new services had been opened. And, no longer did people have to scrub around in handbags and pockets to find change for a grumpy bus driver, or a tube ticket machine that didn’t work. All this had been replaced by the pre-paid, touch-only Oyster card. Brilliant.

Now, the lucky folk who live south of our border, in Greater Manchester, are to get their very own Oyster card system. The name is excruciating (‘My Get Me There’ – I’ve not made that up) but the card itself will be of great benefit to travellers.

However, it will not herald a new Jerusalem where Greater Manchester’s public transport system is suddenly on a par with London’s; still less will that be true for us in East Lancashire.

The reason is very simple – money.

London has had the lion’s share of investment in public transport for years – and the gap is going to get worse.

Historically, and on the most optimistic of assumptions by the Treasury, past spend in the North West has been 40% of London’s.

As for the near future, some estimates show that London’s spend per head will be 30 times that of the North West’s.

You can’t move in central London for huge, mega-millions worth of work on Crossrail.

Meanwhile, getting the Blackburn/Bolton line doubled, for a few millions, has taken years (and we’re not there yet), and bus services are cut, not expanded.

This can be reversed. But it needs a change of will from an establishment far too London-centric.