Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he held discussions with TransPennine express on the extension of the First TransPennine Express Limited 2021 rail contract on the 8 February 2023.

I am having weekly meetings with Rail North Partnership (RNP) officials to monitor TransPennine Express (TPE)’s performance and the Secretary of State and I met TPE’s managing director and the Managing Director of First Rail to discuss TPE’s service improvement plan.