AVANTI West Coast, the operator of the crucial London to Glasgow line has been given a six-month extension to its contract despite having the worst record in the UK for cancellations at the end of the year, it has emerged.
The FirstGroup-owned company's contract was due to expire at the end of this month, but the Department for Transport has now extended it.
It can be revealed that the award comes as rail regulator data shows that one in ten of the operator's planned trains over the final quarter of last year were cancelled.
The government’s controversial decision means the rail company, which runs trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, will be able to continue running services until October 15.
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This decision comes almost six months after the operator was initially put on a short-term contract by the Government and ordered to develop a recovery plan aimed at addressing poor performance on vital West Coast Main Line routes.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said that the contract award "proved conclusively that the government rewards failure".
RMT president Alex Gordon said news of the contract being awarded to the "failing train company " had "sent our hearts into our shoes".
"The west coast mainline railway is the backbone of the national rail network," he said.
"It connects the largest cities in our country.
"The only outcome that will satisfy rail users and the workers is when we renationalise our public transport system and our railway network," he said.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch added: “The government is keeping privatisation afloat regardless of the cost to the rail passengers, rail workers and the taxpayer and the service itself.
And the We Own It anti-privatisation campaign group described the decision as "deplorable" stating: "They're running our railway into the ground. We are taking action to demand our railway is taken back into public ownership."
The train company has previously been heavily criticised after significantly cutting its services since August, last year, cutting the number of trains between London and Manchester to one an hour, and releasing tickets only a few days in advance.
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According to The Office of Rail and Road, Avanti West Coast had the highest cancellations score of all train operators in the UK at 10.5% between October and December, last year.
There was no change in that performance between January 8 and February 4 - with a 10.5% cancellation performance score. The average across 23 rail operators was 3.4%.
Out of 6117 trains planned, 211 were part cancelled and 536 were fully cancelled.
There was some improvement between February 5 and March 4 when there was a 5.2% cancellation score.
The UK Government said the contract was given following "significant improvements" were made since October.
Transport Secretary, Mark Harper said: “The routes Avanti West Coast run are absolutely vital, and I fully understand the frustrations passengers felt at the completely unacceptable services seen last Autumn. Following our intervention, Rail minister Huw Merriman and I have worked closely with local leaders to put a robust plan in place, which I’m glad to see is working.
Video: London to Scotland by train, Avanti West Coast
“However, there is still more work to be done to bring services up to the standards we expect, which is why over this next six months further improvements will need to be made by Avanti West Coast."
It came as Avanti trains between London and Glasgow were delayed by a points failure at Carstairs on Monday - and they are expected to be hit again by strikes on March 30 and April 1.
Following criticism of a contract extension last year, FirstGroup, which owns Avanti West Coast in a joint venture with Italy’s Trenitalia, had said it plans to increase services from about 180 trains a day to 264 on weekdays as more drivers become available. It also said it would improve ticketing services.
Now Avanti's parent company First Group said the current arrangements had been extended "under broadly the same terms and conditions".
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Chief executive Graham Sutherland said: "We are working closely with government and our partners across the industry to deliver a successful railway for our customers and communities.
"Performance at Avanti is steadily improving and, since the introduction of the new timetable in mid-December, the number of services has increased by more than 40% compared to last summer, with more seats and better frequencies."
Avanti West Coast said tickets are now available 12 weeks in advance for weekdays and six weeks in advance for weekends.
And it said that 86 (2%) of the 4153 scheduled services in March to date were have been cancelled
An Avanti West Coast spokesman said “Since the introduction of our new timetable in December we have increased the number of services we run by more than 40%, and customers are seeing the benefits of that with more seats and more frequent services. Performance continues to improve, with 1.5% of services cancelled since the start of March.”
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