Network Rail has completed £8.8 billion of engineering works on schedule - and is set to unveil boosted capacity.
The transport body which was tasked with upgrading the West Coast Main Line is set to introduce a new timetable on Sunday which will see train operators running more services.
It is expected up to 1,000 extra trains will run each week and journey times will be slashed by up to 30 per cent.
Network Rail’s chief executive Iain Coucher said: “Network Rail has delivered West Coast on the day we said we would. The infrastructure is now ready for the introduction of new, faster, more frequent services across the route.”
Network Rail was fined a record £14 million when engineering works overran at Rugby in January.
Since then it has been under mounting pressure to make sure the engineering works are completed on time.
It recently came under fire from the CEO of Virgin Trains Tony Collins who said he was concerned about the reliability of the completed rail network.
He also predicted that even if engineering works were completed on time, Network Rail would still need to guarantee reliability, which could be challenging.
But he pledged to keep working with the company to develop a reliable service.
He said: “More seats and reduced journey times are huge wins for passengers but we will all be judged on how well this railway will perform.”
