Struggling UK rail operator Avanti West Coast has been granted another short-term contract extension after the government said its services had “improved” recently but more needed to be done.

Avanti, which operates services from London’s Euston station to Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, was plagued by operational issues last year.

The government granted Avanti, which is part of First Group, an initial six-month contract extension from October 2022 to the end of March 2023 when the company was warned that it must “drastically improve” services on the West Coast Main Line.

The latest six-month extension to Avanti’s contract runs until 15 October 2023 – it comes after the operator increased services by 40 per cent in recent months and cut the cancellation rate from 25 per cent last summer to 4.2 per cent in March.

The Department for Transport (DFT) said there had been “significant improvements” after Avanti West Coast introduced a new timetable on 11 December, with 90 per cent of trains now arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.

UK transport secretary, Mark Harper said Avanti West Coast’s services were “absolutely vital” for the country and the government’s “robust plan” to improve the situation has been working.

“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,” added Harper.

The operator has been told that it must make more progress to “restore reliability and punctuality to the standards that passengers rightly expect”, including fewer cancellations and providing better passenger information when there is disruption.

Avanti West Coast’s services were badly hit last summer when train drivers suddenly stopped volunteering to work overtime, which led to the high level of cancellations to services.

Graham Sutherland, First Group’s CEO, said: “Performance at Avanti is steadily improving. Today’s agreement allows our team to continue their focus on delivering their robust plans to continue enhancing services for our customers, including further progress on our train upgrade and refurbishment programme.”

Meanwhile, First Group has appointed Andy Mellors as managing director of Avanti with immediate effect. Mellors, who has previously held senior roles at Great Western Railway and South Western Railway, takes over from Steve Montgomery, First Rail’s managing director, who has been leading Avanti on an acting basis since September 2022.