The government in the UK has asked Virgin Rail to continue operating its rail services on the West Coast line following a prolonged row over the award of the operating contract to another company.

The move will give 23 months to the government to finalize a long term agreement for the award of the operating agreement. The contract for about 13 years, which was to begin in December this year, was earlier awarded to FirstGroup but the government had to cancel the award after it discovered some serious flaws into the way the contract was awarded to Virgin’s rival.

The new franchise deal was granted to Virgin’s rival, FirstGroup instead of Virgin Trains. The government had to review its decision to grant the franchise to FirstGroup after it discovered flaws in the way the deal was awarded.

The Department for Transport (DfT) had recently said that it will no longer contest the Judicial Review about how the West Coast Main Line (WCML) franchise was awarded in August. Due to the legal challenge posed by Virgin Trains, First Group will not likely to receive keys to the line on 9 December.

Virgin had offered to run the line free of cost until the matter is resolved. However, some leaders might be considering the option of nationalizing the line on a temporary basis. The leaders have raised concerns about how the decision to change the franchise would affect fares and levels of service on the route.