Virgin Trains’ role in transforming rail journeys between Scotland and England has been recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony in Glasgow.

The intercity operator was named as Public Transport Operator of the Year at the Scottish Transport Awards, cementing its reputation as the UK’s leading long-distance rail service.

Virgin Trains has seen strong customer satisfaction levels and record passenger numbers on its east coast and west coast routes over the past year following a raft of investment, innovation and customer service improvements.

On the east coast route between Edinburgh and London, passenger numbers grew by 8% last year as train interiors were overhauled on its entire fleet and 45 additional services between the capitals were added.

On the west coast route, punctuality has improved to record levels and passenger volumes between Glasgow and London have rebounded following the closure of the route in early 2016 due to a bridge failure at Lamington. In a 24-week period to the end of March, passenger numbers were up by 28% compared to two years ago.

Both routes have been boosted by the introduction of the innovative and industry-leading onboard entertainment service, BEAM, which allows customers to stream more than 200 hours of Hollywood blockbusters and popular box sets straight to their device.

Patrick McGrath, Virgin Trains’ Executive Director for Human Resources on the west coast route, said: “This is a wonderful recognition of the hard work Virgin Trains has put in over the last 20 years to transform customer services and improve rail connections between England and Scotland. We have seen investment, innovation and a relentless focus on customer experience which has helped make rail more popular than ever and we want to play a leading role in continuing that great success story.”

David Horne, Managing Director of Virgin Trains’ east coast route, added: “We started our Virgin Trains journey just over two years ago and have already seen a root-and-branch overhaul over the service we provide to customers. Brand new train interiors, more frequent journeys, introduction of an industry-leading entertainment streaming app, BEAM. These have helped drive the amazing 8% growth in passenger numbers between Edinburgh and London last year and we couldn’t be more pleased to be recognised by Transport Times for putting those improvements in place.”