Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2026 to Question 122594, on what basis her Department determined that the delayed appointment of Chiltern Railways as operator for East West Rail Services was caused by the General Election in July 2024, and whether her Department has commissioned an independent assessment of the cause of the delay to that appointment.

The appointment of the operator for the first phase of EWR services was paused during the General Election campaign in July 2024. This Government then appointed Chiltern Railways as the operator in March 2025. The department has not commissioned an independent assessment of this specific delay to the programme.