Steve Rotheram has vowed to create a public transport system "better than they've got in London" and has dared Tory ministers to try and stop him.
The Liverpool City Region mayor, speaking at a Labour Party conference event, said his plan would see trains, buses and ferries in the region come under one brand, with one ticketing method and with carefully planned and linked timetables and cheaper fares.
Mayor Rotheram told Labour delegates that he had made Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps aware of the proposal, but wasn't going to wait for permission.
Read more: A closer look at Liverpool City Region's connected public transport plans
He said: "There's an old adage that a Scouser can learn to read between the lines before they read words.
"And I've checked my devolution agreement, and it tells me the things that I can do, but nowhere does it tell me the things that I can't do.
"So I'm doing, and I'm waiting for somebody to stop me. Don't ask permission, get on and do it."
He added: "The public transport system that we will create in the future will be equally as good as anything you'll find anywhere in Europe and hopefully, certainly better than they've got in London."
Echoing Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham, who hit out at Labour bosses for not allocating a speaking slot to a Northern Labour mayor on the main stage at conference, Mayor Rotheram said: "We should have had the opportunity to talk about this on the platform.
"This isn't just Labour in power, this is socialism in action, it shows you can actually do some wonderful things even with the limited powers given to us by Tory governments."
Mayor Rotheram, addressing an event on "levelling up the North", also urged the Labour leadership to "start talking about council house building".
He said: "The time is right to do something on that."
During his leadership campaign, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to build a “new generation of council and social homes” but stopped short of committing to the party's 2019 manifesto pledge to build 100,000 council homes per year.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
