More trains now run late on the West Coast Main Line than before the track's £9bn upgrade according to BBC figures which show that about 20% of Virgin Trains don't arrive on time on the route from London to Glasgow.

Before the upgrade was completed at the end of last year (Dec 2008) 85.3% of trains arrived on time but it has now fallen to 80.1%.

Network Rail said that it had so far upgraded only 40% of the line and said unreliable older equipment had caused most of the delays but that some of the new equipment had also failed.

It said it would spend £50m on replacing old equipment and use specialist engineers to keep old equipment in repair until it could be replaced.

In a letter sent to a passenger group, Network Rail said its "expectations have not been met and we are dissatisfied with the level of service we are providing" adding  "Train punctuality is simply not good enough with only four out of five Virgin services arriving on time.

Read More >

More trains now run late on the West Coast Main Line than before the track's £9bn upgrade according to BBC figures which show that about 20% of Virgin Trains don't arrive on time on the route from London to Glasgow.

Before the upgrade was completed at the end of last year (Dec 2008) 85.3% of trains arrived on time but it has now fallen to 80.1%.

Network Rail said that it had so far upgraded only 40% of the line and said unreliable older equipment had caused most of the delays but that some of the new equipment had also failed.

It said it would spend £50m on replacing old equipment and use specialist engineers to keep old equipment in repair until it could be replaced.

In a letter sent to a passenger group, Network Rail said its "expectations have not been met and we are dissatisfied with the level of service we are providing" adding  "Train punctuality is simply not good enough with only four out of five Virgin services arriving on time.

"Performance took a hit in 2008 due to the massive amount of activity to complete the project and introduce all the new services. Since the turn of the year, punctuality has not improved as we would like and is lagging behind other long-distance routes."

Phil Davies, from Passenger Focus, said: "In the end passengers want to see this service delivered, we've certainly paid for it, we're still paying for it, and we want to see results now."

The Office of Rail Regulation has said it is looking into Network Rail's performance after having criticised "unsatisfactory" delays and disruption on the West Coast Main Line earlier this month.

Virgin Trains said: "We are disappointed that Network Rail have spent £9 billion on the 'upgrade' to deliver the worst performing route on the rail network today.  This is an unacceptable position for our customers."