Virgin Trains is preparing to stage regular quarterly recruitment events at UK prisons to staff its West Coast rail route connecting London to Scotland.

The rail company first began actively recruiting people with criminal convictions in 2013 in a bid to help end reoffending, but now plans to double the number of staff it recruits from prisons.

Kathryn Wildman, who leads recruitment on the West Coast route, said Virgin Trains would hold recruitment fairs every three months across UK jails.

“We started this process three years ago with relatively modest ambitions. But we’ve been really pleased with the calibre of candidates we’ve managed to attract through prison recruitment events and our wider ex offenders programme and so we’ve decided to incorporate these into our regular calendar of recruitment events,” she said.

Virgin Trains has established partnerships with HM Prison Service, the Scottish Prison Service and private prison operators, the company said. In 2014 Virgin Trains hoped to employ 12 people with convictions as part of the contract awarded by the Department for Transport to run services on the West Coast, and now has 27 staff who were recruited through this programme.

Virgin is preparing to battle rival rail companies to keep hold of the West Coast franchise as the first few years of High Speed 2 services begins.