When the Christmas post drops through letterboxes this year, look out for a special seasonal card from TransPennine Express (TPE).

The train operating company (TOC) has produced hundreds of the specially-designed Christmas cards which are being made available to customers.

The cards are all the more special as they were designed by Quinn Kelly, aged eight, from York. She won a competition to design TPE’s card which features one of the company’s Nova trains.  Father Christmas is travelling overhead – not on a train, but on his traditional mode of transport, hauled by reindeers – but he’s remembered to leave a bundle of presents behind.

As thousands of people being their Christmas journeys on board TPE trains, Quinn’s card is available free to customers who can write a message to a friend or a loved one and help spread festive cheer. In addition, from tomorrow – Wednesday 20 December – Santa and his ‘Charm Elves’ will be travelling across the TPE network with a number of surprises for customers. Not only will they be giving out the Christmas cards but they’ll also have a stock of mince pies, golden envelopes containing prizes and a few other surprises. The festive giveaway is part of TPE’s commitment to making journeys better, offering a ‘wow’ factor on its services and helping colleagues to connect with customers.

Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Service and Operations Director at TransPennine Express, said: “Quinn’s Christmas card design is absolutely brilliant and after she won our internal competition, we knew that we had to make them available for our customers too.

“Anyone travelling home for Christmas who may have forgotten to pick up a card for their loved ones can now have one of Quinn’s wonderful cards and write their own personal message.”

Quinn’s dad, Adam Kelly, a conductor instructor at TPE, added: “When we heard Quinn had won the competition we were over the moon. She’s always had a great eye for art and so we knew she would design a cracking Christmas card. I’ll be picking up some of the free cards on offer to send to all our family and friends.