Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the public consultation on the future of East Midlands rail franchise.

The consultation into the next East Midlands rail franchise ran from 20 July and 11 October 2017 and received over 2,300 responses. In due course the Secretary of State will publish a Stakeholder Briefing Document alongside the ITT for the competition. This will explain how the Department has considered the comments and suggestions made, and explored how these opportunities could be incorporated into the East Midlands franchise specification.