The RMT union has called for rail company Avanti West Coast to be stripped of its franchise for running the west coast mainline.

The call from the RMT comes despite the rail company making ‘key improvements’ according to the Office for Road and Rail (ORR).

The rail regulator had initially asked for ‘immediate improvement’ to Avanti’s timetable recovery plan, after its initial improvements stalled but has since said the company is on the right tracks to making improvements.

The RMT disagree however and have said that the west coast mainline should be put under the ‘Operator of Last Resort’.

The union say that between December 11 and January 8, Avanti cancelled 22 per cent of their planned trains. Between January 9 and February 5, they cancelled 12 per cent, almost three times the average for the UK in the same period (4.4 per cent)

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "This data shows that Avanti have done nothing to tackle the cause of their disastrous performance, running fewer trains than last year and still cancelling 17 per cent of them, almost entirely due to their chronic short staffing.

“This franchise run by Avanti cannot be rectified as they are incapable of real change.

“The public should be put out of their misery and the West Coast should now be placed within the publicly-owned Operator of Last Resort.

“Ultimately there will be no solution to the problems on Britain’s railways until the whole model of rail privatisation is abolished in favour of direct public ownership."

Avanti was awarded a six-month contract extension by the government in the autumn but were warned to ‘drastically improve’ if the contract was to be extended further.

Cumbrian MPs have also been vocal in their criticism of the franchise with both John Stevenson and Neil Hudson calling for improved performance from the train company. Workington MP Mark Jenkinson has said the franchise should be stripped.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “Our new timetable has greatly increased the number of services we're running, and customers are seeing the benefits of that with more seats and more frequent services with performance steadily improving.

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“We’re running far more services than we were last year, and our cancellations are falling. Since the period covered by the ORR report, cancellations have been below 7 per cent.”