The ScotRail Alliance has said it is “one of the best performing railways in Britain” and is also “on a par with the big operators across Europe.”

The announcement comes at the train prover confirmed it has achieved a sixth consecutive period of year-on-year train service performance improvement.

In the four weeks to March 31, 93.3% of ScotRail trains met the industry punctuality target measures.

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This is 0.7% better than the same four-week period last year - and 0.1% better than the previous four weeks.

During the same period, equivalent performance in England and Wales was 90.7%.

This means ScotRail’s annual average performance figure is 90.3% against 87.4% in England and Wales.

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ScotRail Alliance operations director Perry Ramsey said: “This was another period where our people delivered a great service for our customers.

“We are now consistently delivering one of the best performing railways in Britain. In fact, the levels we are now operating at are on a par with the big operators across Europe.

“We are entering into an exciting time for our railway. In a matter of weeks, the electrification of the line between Edinburgh and Glasgow will be finished.

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“This will allow us to bring into service the brand new faster, longer, greener trains that will deliver more seats and shorter journey times.

“Following that, our fully refurbished fleet of inter-city trains will give customers a better, more comfortable and faster way to travel between the seven cities of Scotland, better connecting Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and the Central Belt.

“Alongside the continued roll out of our queue-busting smart tickets, we are transforming the way people travel.”

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The surprising announcement comes after months of issues for the troubled network.

Just last month, ministers signalled a further push for full control of Scotland's railways, claiming "an honest conversation" was needed with the trains' operator over the causes for delays and disruption.