Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2026 to Question 106601, what the (a) operating revenue, (b) operating costs and (c) net cost of onboard catering were for TransPennine Express in each financial year between 1995–96 and 2024–25.

We are only able to provide data since the transfer into public ownership in May 2023. The data for 2023/24 (May onward) and 2024/25 are:

The difference in cost is explained by the fact that 2023/24 is a part year, and 2024/25 is a full year, with the one-off implementation costs of TransPennine Trains’ (TPT) ‘Coast to Coast’ catering set up in that year.

Catering is a service offer on most of the longer distance operators, including TPT, whose core business is leisure travel, and where journey lengths are often in excess of two hours. Revenue generated by First Class, in which catering is an important feature, is also an important part of TPT's business model. The revenue numbers do not include fares income generated by the availability of catering on board TPT services, which are captured within TPT's wider reporting on revenues by route.