Virgin Trains is to continue to run the West Coast Mainline rail services for nearly two years.
The franchise was due to end on Sunday (December 9) but now Virgin has agreed with the government to continue running the West Coast services for up to 23 months until November 2014.
Virgin originally lost the bid to retain the West Coast Mainline to First Group but this decision was cancelled by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin in October due to “significant flaws”in the bid process. A report on what went wrong with the original tender process is due out today (December 6).
Sir Richard Branson’s group has now agreed a short-term contract to continue running West Coast services while a new bidding process takes place.
The interim contract with Virgin Trains runs until November 8, 2014, although it can be terminated earlier if a new long-term franchise is ready to start before this date.
McLoughlin said: "We are determined to ensure not only that passengers continue to experience the same levels of service they have in the past, but that services improve. There will be a new hourly service linking Glasgow and London and we will also work with Virgin Trains to explore other service improvements.
"I am also extremely pleased that passengers will benefit from up to 28,000 more seats daily thanks to the delivery of 106 new Pendolino carriages onto the West Coast Mainline which has happened on budget and ahead of schedule."
Tony Collins, chief executive of Virgin Rail Group, added: “I’m delighted that we have an agreement with the Department for Transport that gives us the chance to continue providing high quality services to our customers. We have had great support from staff and customers in recent months and we will repay that loyalty with even better service.
“We will not be sitting back in the coming months, but are keen to introduce more improvements to the service, which is already the most popular long-distance service in the country. We are proud of what we have achieved since 1997, but there is undoubtedly more to come and we will work closely with the Department for Transport to bring even better services in future.”
virgintrains.co.uk