Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to ask the Office of Rail and Road to re-evaluate the open access application by Hull Trains to operate services between London King's Cross and Sheffield, in light of the reductions to East Midlands Railway’s Intercity timetable.

Hull Trains’ previous application to operate services between London and Sheffield was rejected by the Office or Rail and Road (ORR) in July 2025 due to concerns over capacity, performance and financial impacts. We respect the ORR’s decision on this.

Any Open Access operator may apply to operate new services, but this would be a commercial decision for the operator to take. Under the current system, any new application would be subject to full and independent review by the ORR. In the future, Great British Railways will be able to decide the best use of network capacity and take decisions as a directing mind.