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Network Rail is to pump a further ^50m into the West Coast Route Modernisation amid mounting embarrassment that the line is the most unreliable in Britain despite a ^9bn upgrade.

The long-running saga to overhaul infrastructure on the London Euston to Glasgow route was officially completed just before Christmas to allow Virgin Trains to introduce a higher frequency timetable with more train services and shorter journey times.

However, punctuality on the line remains well below that for lines which have not benefited from major investment. Publishing period 2 (3-30 May 2009) monthly punctuality figures on Monday (22 June) Network Rail said punctuality for Virgin Trains on the West Coast line had risen 3.8% year on year to 84.6%. But this is 10% lower than First Great Western at 94.6% while other inter-city train operators report 93.5% (East Midlands Trains) and 92.5% (National Express East Coast).

Last month Virgin Trains formally complained to the Office of Rail Regulation about the performance of West Coast rail infrastructure and has demanded the regulator hold Network Rail to account. Earlier this month Virgin and Network Rail agreed a six month Joint Performance Improvement Plan which is to due to be scrutinised at the ORR's board meeting this week.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail's director of operations and customer service, said: "We accept that particular focus is needed to improve performance for Virgin trains where only four out of five services arrive on time. Working together with all the train operators on the West Coast route we have embarked upon a ^50m package of improvements aimed at raising train punctuality to acceptable levels."

In May Network Rail announced it would create a specialist maintenance team at the southern end of the West Coast Main Line tasked with improving the reliability of the infrastructure (Transport Briefing 26/05/09).

Period 2 saw 93.4% (91.7% last year) of train services across Britain arrive on time with 16 of the 19 train operators seeing improvement compared to the same period last year. Only three operators saw performance dip, and all still delivered significantly above average performance - First Scotrail to 92.4% from 93.7%, First Capital Connect to 92.3% from 93% and Merseyrail to 96.9% from 97%.

You don't need infrastructure improvements to boost punctuality.... just add 10 minutes to the end of each journey!  ;D

But experience shows that adding padding does nothing to boost train reliability.

Virgin seem to be one of the only TOCs to be all in out trying to reduce journey times. Whilst others add slack here and there, Virgin has tightened up its operations, which - if the infrastructure allows - should boost punctuality.

Fast, long and frequent trains are in my opinion it's the only way to run a railway. With the exception of HSTs on commuter routes which should be electric.

Tightening up the schedules does not boost punctuality. As soon as anything goes wrong it takes longer to recover. Part of the reason FGW's performance has shot up is due to the padding - especially on a route like the Cotswold Line where with the old schedules once a train was delayed it stayed delayed and that delayed the next train and so on. With the current excessive padding, at least things get back to normal quicker.

I'd rather all padding were removed.

Perhaps you do not travel on the real railway, however the slightest thing can cause a delay, and as such, I like to be able to make sure that my connection home will stand without having to dash around!

Nonsense. Whilst FGW's punctuality is now up, it is not due to the excessive padding. Over the last few years as padding was added, punctuality got worse. The recent improvements are due to excellent work on FGW's part.

Furthermore, adding padding discourages tight running and allows slack operations, as I, and others, have seen on many occasions on various TOCs. The consequence of this is that the trains still run late.

I also think we should distinguish between adding padding at the end of journeys (a la Chiltern, where you'll stay on time, and then arrive 5-10 minutes early) and adding padding at every stop and junction (a la XC, where you seem to dwell for 5+ mins at every station; admittedly XC can't path perfectly throughout the country, but the padding is still unacceptable IMO). The former is a lot better, as regular travellers know the real timings, and occasional travellers are extra happy with the TOC.

I know that when I travel Chiltern, I'll get in at least 5 mins early each time.