PASSENGER campaigners slammed ministers for “rewarding failure” yesterday after Britain’s most unpopular train company was handed a three-and-a-half-year franchise extension.

FirstGroup’s First Great Western, which operates services from London to the Thames Valley, south Wales and south-west England, received 45,100 complaints via social media last year — the largest volume of any privateer railway.

But just six weeks before the general election, the Con-Dem government has kept the shambolic set-up on the rails.

The government announced a new order of electric trains for the Thames Valley routes, which will be electrified along with the lines to Bristol and south Wales.

Tory Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, a former scab miner, hailed it as a “fantastic deal.”

And FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole crowed: “We are delighted to be awarded the contract in a deal that will deliver for passengers and taxpayers.”

But campaigners said the deal exposed the myth of competition in the privatised railway.

“Once again (Mr McLoughlin) has simply extended a franchise to the sitting tenant without any pretence at competition,” transport union TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said. “No wonder Tim O’Toole is so pleased.”

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the deal was “absolutely outrageous.”

“It guarantees the company an income with virtually no risk and no incentive to improve performance,” he stormed.

“This award is a bad deal for passengers and a bad deal for those who work in the rail industry, as well as a bad deal for taxpayers.”

Joining the calls for renationalisation, RMT leader Mick Cash said: “The contract extension to First Great Western truly is reward for failure on a grotesque scale.

“This is a company that ducked nearly a billion pounds-worth of payments to the taxpayer, rakes in a fortune, offers lousy quality of service and treats its staff like dirt.”

Campaign for Better Transport spokesman Martin Abrams said: “Passengers will welcome the news that new trains are on the way to help reduce overcrowding.

“However, the rolling stock won’t be arriving any time soon, and questions remain about whether the franchising system is rewarding failure.”