FORMER county council transport boss John Fillis is calling for cross-party support to demand that the Government keeps its promise to fund ‘smart ticketing’ in Lancashire.

The deputy leader of the authority’s Labour group is concerned over the government’s decision to cut £39billion from the budget of Transport for the North including £105million to develop a London ‘Oyster Card’ style system that would cover all means of public transport in the region.

Cllr Fillis said “We are looking to be developing a road to recovery. A significant part of that is public transport that will enable people to get to work through streamlining their travel plans. Smart ticketing would play as significant part in that process as well as provide people with a tool to help them budget through the hard times to come.

“We have all seen how London has benefitted from a single smart system as well as Merseyside and Manchester. Yet in Lancashire we have been left behind and that gap is growing bigger all the time. To expand to a single network would open up opportunities to everyone not only for people going to work but also boost industries like tourism that have suffered significantly during the pandemic.”

Blackburn with Darwen transport boss and TfN board members Cllr Phil Riley said: “Smart ticketing is effectively dead. I am concerned that the government appears to have lost its appetite for devolution to northern leaders and Transport for the North.”

Cllr Fillis is planning to put a motion on the issue to the next full meeting of Lancashire County Council.