BRITAIN’S biggest railway union has attacked a new Virgin Trains app that helps passengers when trains are cancelled and delayed as a “scam” to push through more cuts.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash criticised Virgin’s Back on Track app as a sign of another failure of railway privatisation and a way to cut staff.

The app aims to give passengers information about alternative routes when there are problems on services by connecting rail staff with control centres to provide up-to-the-minute details on train routes.

However the PR stunt comes amid cuts to front-line staff and can be seen as an excuse for a poor service and a way to fob off angry passengers.

Mr Cash told the Star: “This sounds like a scam designed to cut staff and harvest data from users.

“What Britain’s railways needs is public ownership, not more gimmicks from the likes of Richard Branson.”

A survey undertaken by Transport Focus, published in January, revealed that rail passenger satisfaction is at its lowest level since 2007 with more than one in five passengers unsatisfied.