THE future of public transport in the West Midlands has been put firmly in the spotlight this week as the build-up to the mayoral election rumbles on.

Speaking at the recently-opened University Station in Birmingham on Monday, Conservative candidate Andy Street unveiled plans to allow passengers to travel seamlessly across all transport modes with their existing Swift cards.

Passengers on the Metro and NX buses are already able to ‘tap and go’ using their existing Swift card.

However Mr Street, who became mayor in 2017, says he has won Government funding for the region to be the first to roll out Swift card ‘tap and go’ access to include trains and all buses.

“We have the funding in place to do this, and we have done much of the groundwork by growing use of Swift, so we don’t need to spend millions launching a new card,” he said.

“So, I’m pledging that, if I am re-elected, I will introduce fare-capping across all modes of transport, across the whole of the region, creating a seamless network that makes travel easy and convenient while keeping fares low.”

Mr Street’s pledge comes as Richard Parker, Labour’s candidate for the critical mayoral role, sets out his own vision for public transport in the West Midlands – which also includes plans to introduce ‘fully integrated tap and go contactless payments’ if elected.

“I’ve already said I’ll bring the buses under public control, which will improve services and reduce fares but this is another step in making journeys seamless,” he said.

“We’ll introduce contactless bank card ticketing across all modes of public transport which will cap fares and give people the flexibility to travel how they want in the easiest way for them – whether that’s on the bus, train or tram.”

“The West Midlands has been playing catch-up with other transport networks as we lack  a fully integrated network which uses ‘tap and go’,” he added. “We’re way behind the curve, so I’m keen to make this happen quickly.”

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Monday, Andy Street explained why residents should have confidence in his vision for the future of the region’s public transport.

“The most important thing that should give people confidence in what I say is we have been delivering transport investment for the last few years,” he said.

“We’re standing in a brand new station here at University, we’ve just git off a brand new fleet of West Midlands trains, we’re investing in the Camp Hill Line, we’re building new Metro routes and Sprint bus routes.

“The simple fact is I have already demonstrated the ability to make things happen.”

On when his plans could be introduced if re-elected next month, Mr Street continued: “The Swift fare capping will be rolled out early next year, we’re aiming at quarter one of next year because we’ve already won the funding for it.”

Asked why the region had fallen behind in terms of public transport, he continued: “It did lag behind that’s fair, because there was nobody banging the drum, winning the investment for it.

“What we’ve now got is a mayor who champions public transport and wins the investment – hence why we’re now making rapid progress catching up.”

Along with Mr Street (Conservative) and Mr Parker (Labour), the other candidates in the West Midlands Mayoral election are:

Siobhan Harper Nunes (Greens)

Sunny Virk (Lib Dems)

Elaine Williams (Reform UK)

Akhmed Yakoob (Independent)