“I’ve set a target of achieving a London-style transport system for Liverpool in the next decade”

That was the message from Metro Mayor of Liverpool Steve Rotheram whilst delivering an inspiring keynote speech at our North West Development Conference, as he outlined his vision for a transportation revolution in the region. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Heavy investment has already been made to improve Liverpool’s Merseyrail Metro system, most recently with the introduction of the cutting-edge Class 777 trains: “This is a £460m investment which means we will have the most sophisticated rolling stock in the country, and the Liverpool City Region will own that rolling stock.”

Rotheram also told delegates that the region was taking a “fresh approach to regulation of bus services”, reviewing the reinstatement of regulatory controls on bus companies, and looking at replacing their current system with a partnership or franchising model.

Active travel solutions are also being incorporated into Liverpool’s transport ecosystem, which Rotheram highlighted: “We’ve invested £16m in the first phase of a walking and cycling network.”

Rotheram emphasised the importance of “connecting our transport offer into a wider strategy” citing the regions successes in green energy. He noted the opportunity to become “the UK’s renewable energy coast.”

He also saw potential for the city to move into the “huge trading markets of tomorrow” with the advantageous telecom’s connection of the City Region. Rotherham remarked: “We have the capacity to do big data analytics.”

The Metro Mayor also promised financial backing for business from the devolution deal as he outlined the spending: “£75m raft of measures which includes a £25m loan for businesses to invest in job creation and boosting productivity, £7m of inwards investment funding, £15m Brexit support pot for SMEs.”

Despite the large number of projects being undertaken by the authority, Rotheram remarked on the limitations of the devolution deal for the area: “If we had a Barnett Formula, we wouldn’t have any problems in the Liverpool City Region. I want a pot of money with flexibility, but what we get is a very prescriptive pot of money.”

Devolution is providing exciting opportunities for the North West and the prospect of greater devolution will allow even more ambitious projects.

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