Passengers going between London and Glasgow Central on the east coast were being advised to take Virgin Trains' West Coast trains instead.

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The transport secretary had earlier announced that Virgin Trains will run the West Coast Mainline for a further 23 months.

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The mistakes came to light after bidder Virgin Trains, which had run the West Coast Mainline since 1997, launched a legal challenge against the decision.

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The mistakes came to light after rival bidder Virgin Trains, which has run the West Coast Main Line since 1997, launched a legal challenge against the decision.

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Virgin Trains, which runs services on the West Coast mainline, told the BBC there was a "wider range of value fares than ever before" on their services.

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The east coast was ten year old, ten year old, ten year old - sorry ten year old track, ten year old trains - and was really quite a modern railway network, and yet Chris Green and the team at Virgin Trains actually got the performance of the west coast ahead of GNER in the last six months running up to Hatfield.

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The most popular rail company, according to the Which? survey, was Virgin Trains (67% satisfaction) which almost lost its West Coast main line franchise in October.

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Virgin Trains, which was given the right to run the West Coast line for a further two years while the system is sorted out, is understood to be keen to bid for the new East Coast contract.

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