Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick (Labour, Heatons South), Shadow Spokesperson – Transport:
Would Councillor Iain Roberts, as a Stockport representative on Transport for Greater Manchester, like to take this opportunity to explain to the Council what ‘Get Me There’ is?
Cllr Iain Roberts (Liberal Democrat, Cheadle and Gatley), Deputy Leader of the Council:
‘Get Me There’ essentially is a travel smartcard, so a card that means you have something in your pocket and you don’t have to pay separately and have multiple tickets. You have one card and you can use that one card to travel on Metrolink, on buses, and, at some point in the future, on trains.
As members will be aware, ATOS recently stepped back and said they couldn’t deliver the contract and one of the jobs we have, as members of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, is to look at that carefully and make sure that the people of Greater Manchester aren’t losing out as a result of that and to make sure we understand what has happened with ATOS, which I don’t think we still have the full story on yet.
But following on from that, something that we on this side are very keen to see, was really a quick solution. You can call it ‘Get Me There’, you can call it a ‘Travel Smartcard’, but what we wanted to see was a single card which [people in GM] could use to travel on buses from different bus companies, on Metrolink, and before too long on trains. We asked for that in August.
Initially, the response came back from TfGM to say that couldn’t happen, and I have to say we were very, very, pleased in early September when actually we were told that it was going to happen.
Not to be fair on Metrolink initially, but we were told that there will be a Smart Travelcard which people will be able to use by the end of this year, to use on different buses, and that it would be rolled out to Metrolink before too long and in the meantime, Metrolink would enable contactless payment and payment via a smartphone app.
Essentially we were very pleased because it’s 90% of what we had asked for. We were very quick to congratulate TfGM on achieving what we had asked for and we now look forward very much to seeing that card in action by the end of the year.
Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick: Councillor Roberts touched briefly there on multi modal transport. ‘Get Me There’ is smart ticketing that would allow users to use the same pass across all modes of public transport and it would be considerably more advanced than any other system in the country, including the Oyster Card, because it would allow a full range of pre-paid, multi-modal contactless payments.
On Tuesday 1st September 2015 Councillor Roberts was quoted in the Manchester Evening News as saying that ‘elsewhere in the country people are taking just a few months to get this type of system up and running’. Can Councillor Roberts tell us whereabouts in the country it is taking just a few months to get pre-paid, multi-modal, contactless payments up and running?
Cllr Iain Roberts: I think it was absolutely clear from the article and certainly if it wasn’t, it was even clearer from the response the Lib Dem Group put out on 4th September that we were not calling for that sort of smartcard with those particular facilities.
We were calling for a Smart Travelcard which could be used by someone to travel on different bus companies and on trams on one card. That’s what we were calling for.
It was very clear – if it hadn’t been clear we put something out on 4th September which couldn’t have made it any clearer, because it said we have seen what TfGM are now proposing, that’s what we want, we congratulated TfGM. I hope that’s clear enough.
Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick: In that case Councillor Roberts why on 6th September did you tweet ‘last week the Lib Dems called for a Greater Manchester Oyster Card by Christmas and TfGM said no. Just a week later, it’s a yes’?
Mr. Mayor, TfGM have said nothing of the sort. No transport body outside London has managed to deliver a multi modal smart ticketing system, and certainly not on the timescales that Councillor Roberts is suggesting.
So I asked the Chief Executive for Transport for Greater Manchester, Dr John Lamonte, for his opinion, and he said what Councillor Roberts is calling for is ‘impossible.’ Others have called this fantasy politics.
With that in mind, will you be taking up the invitation from the Vice Chair of the TfGM Committee to explain yourself at the next full committee meeting and, if your statements are decided to be incorrect, will you be making a public apology?
Cllr Iain Roberts: I think the confusion from the Labour Group is between talking at a technical level in a committee meeting, when you might say certain things, and when talking to the public.
Now I very much hope Councillor Fitzpatrick doesn’t think we should be talking to the public using the same language that we talk in committee meetings when we’re discussing technical details of cards.
My view is very much if you want to talk to the public about smartcards for travel, you are not talking about the exact details of what they do or how they work, because frankly people aren’t bothered about that. What you are talking about is a smartcard in the pocket that works.
Now I’m clearly not saying we should copy London’s Oyster Card because that would be ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous. And, to be honest, for anyone to believe that’s what I was calling for, if they had bothered to read what we had put out, I would question that.
I would question whether anyone had actually bothered to do 5 minutes research on what we said and if they came out of that and actually believed that I was calling for us to copy London’s Oyster Card, does that stack up, does that sound any way realistic Councillor Fitzpatrick? Of course not.
If I am talking to the public I am trying to get across the message that it’s a travel smartcard. What’s the travel smartcard that everyone knows the name of? It’s the Oyster Card.
What is it in Greater Manchester? It’s ‘Get Me There’, which is less well known, but is still the name out there. It was very clear from what we put out exactly what I was talking about.
It was very clear that from the week before that TfGM meeting when Labour Councillors lined up to attack me, that what I was calling for is actually what TfGM said they were delivering and what was actually in the report in front of us on that day.
So I will certainly not apologise because whatever the Labour Councillors on TfGM see, imagine, come up with, and decide in whatever Star Chamber they want to cast me into, the evidence is absolutely clear – what we were calling for is pretty much what TfGM have delivered.
It could not have been anything else from anyone who had actually read what we said, and I have congratulated TfGM on coming forward and delivering that. I very much look forward to that being delivered by the end of the year.
Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick: Reading the subsequent tweets, it certainly wasn’t clear and seeing what people have been saying around the press and the media it wasn’t clear.
Will you agree with me that it wasn’t clear, and will you apologise when you finally accept that?
Cllr Iain Roberts: Absolutely not; no-one could possibly have read my response from 4th September and not be clear.
Comment: Senior politicians in Stockport should take their responsibilities a bit more seriously, rather than unrealistically raising expectations which can’t be delivered.
TfGM’s ‘Get Me There’ is vitally important, and something residents have been waiting patiently for over the last few years. It won’t be delivered by spin or trying to seek a quick headline, which is what Cllr Roberts has been caught out trying to do.
The idea that the public aren’t interested in ‘the exact details’ is extremely patronising from the Deputy Leader of the Council, who is trying to create a smokescreen to cover up his misleading remarks.