Furious rail passengers have called for under-fire London Midland to be stripped of its franchise after dozens of cancellations left local travellers fuming.

Lobbying group The West Midlands Campaign for Better Transport has accused the rail firm of overseeing a ‘‘shambles’’ in recent weeks which has seen thousands of commuters facing lengthy delays or cancellations.

In the latest controversy, the rail company cancelled or delayed 60 train services to and from Birmingham on Monday because of a driver shortage.

London Midland has now warned that a shortfall of qualified drivers will not be eased until mid-December while Northfield MP Richard Burden has urged Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to take urgent action.

Kevin Chapman, regional campaigner for the West Midlands Campaign for Better Transport, said: “I think London Midland is in the last chance saloon. We have been aware of the problems for a while. London Midland said it was all going to be sorted in a matter of weeks but we are now approaching the end of October and things are definitely not back to normal.

“I think that the Department for Transport should seriously look at stripping London Midland of its franchise. Its performance has been unacceptable and the service does not seem to be improving.

“In addition, passengers should be compensated over and above what is normally offered. This is bad management and should have been sorted out a long time ago – the chickens have come home to roost.

“It’s a complete shambles – people just do not seem to know what the timetable is on any given day. Why have they not got enough drivers to manage the service?

“We would also like to see Centro take over as the franchising authority so that decisions can be taken by local politicians, rather than in London.”

London Midland cancelled about 30 trains, on the Lichfield to Redditch, Birmingham to Northampton and Walsall and Rugeley to Wolverhampton lines, on Monday.

And the problems showed no sign of abating, with the train company warning a shortfall in qualified train drivers will not be addressed until mid-December.

Mr Chapman blamed the fiasco on poor planning by London Midland. “When they took the franchise on, they didn’t have enough staff,” he said. “They also had a recruitment freeze a couple of years ago to try to save money and they lost a lot of drivers – it takes a long time to train up a driver.”

Richard Brooks, commercial director at London Midland, this week apologised to passengers in a statement. “Although we are continuing to recruit and train drivers, we will experience shortages in the meantime. To minimise potential disruption to our regular services, we will be giving passengers more advance notice, of up to 48 hours, of any changes.

“We believe this will provide passengers with more certainty, will enable better journey planning and improve the travel experience.”

But Northfield MP Richard Burden said: “Why has London Midland suddenly found themselves in the position of not having enough drivers?

“Does this lack of long-term thinking and planning have something to do with the fact that their franchise is due to end in 2015?”