Rail operator Virgin has been asked to continue running the troubled West Coast Main Line for another few months, the Government has said.

The temporary fix has been proposed by the Department for Transport after its embarrassing U-turn over the award of a new franchise earlier this month.

Virgin's current franchise is due to end on December 9 but talks are under way about it remaining as operator for between nine and 13 months while a competition is run for an interim franchise agreement. Three Department for Transport (DfT) civil servants were suspended after the West Coast bidding competition was halted on October 3 when "significant technical flaws" were found in the way the franchise process had been conducted.

Virgin has run the West Coast line since 1997 but in August the DfT announced that a new 13-year franchise for the London to Scotland line had been awarded not to Virgin but to rival transport company FirstGroup.

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson launched a legal challenge to the decision, describing the bidding process as "insane".

It was while getting itself ready to fight the legal challenge that the DfT discovered the flaws in the bidding.

The DfT's original decision was made when Justine Greening was Transport Secretary.

Both she and her successor, Patrick McLoughlin, had defended the bidding process in the light of Sir Richard's comments and legal challenge, with Mr McLoughlin telling a Commons Select Committee he was happy with the way the bidding had been conducted.

FirstGroup said: "We believe the private sector provides the most effective and efficient way to deliver passenger rail services in the UK.

"We await the outcome of the independent investigations into the West Coast franchise competition and the wider rail franchising process, which we hope will provide a greater degree of certainty and confidence not only to future bidders but to employees, stakeholders and the travelling public too."

The Press Association, photo by