No sooner had I written my yesterdays blog post than in my inbox arrived Chris Leslie’s newsletter. Chris is one of our local MP’s. He’s not mine, but I’m always interested in some of the local issues he airs.

The final paragraph of his email said,

“If you’ve visited London recently you’ll know that in the capital city the Greater London Assembly – and the London Mayor – have extensive powers to insist on the integration of bus, underground and overground rail services under the auspices of ‘Transport for London’. Yet these powers to plan bus and rail fares and routes are not in the hands of other English cities, including Nottingham. Bus companies argue against the idea of firmer regulation, but what are your views? Shouldn’t Nottingham be able to decide for itself on integrating tram and bus services with more powers decentralised? This was the proposal from Ed Miliband at his launch of a set of decentralisation proposals at a speech in Manchester this week. I know that some progress is being made negotiating a voluntary integration of pay-as-you-go ‘Kangaroo’ tickets in the city, but I think the time has come for a stronger level of strategic overview in Nottingham where support for public transport systems is already very high among local people. I’d be interested in your thoughts”

This rather chimed with me – and I have shared my view with him,

“Chris, I was really interested in your last statement about integrated transport – and in particular TFL. I think it absolutely essential that Nottingham has a simplified / unified transport solution – including a single payment method – like the Oyster Card. The current delays to the tram system are laughable – and are causing real issues for business. But if the reports are to be believed then the penalty paid could be used to create an integrated solution – that would at least leave a legacy for the people of Nottingham who have suffered over the last 18 months! If the reported fine of many millions could be used to set the system up and offer some ‘discounts’ for perhaps the first year, we could turn a negative into a positive.”

Or is this too simple?

I’ll let you know when I get a response!