Transport minister Jenny Gilruth is expected to announce this week that the Caledonian Sleeper service will be taken into public ownership.

It follows the decision last October to cut short the contract with Serco seven years before the end of its 15 year franchise.

Ms Gilruth turned down the company’s request for increased funding to cover the remainder of the contract after it lost £69 million since it began. She is expected to make a statement on Thursday.

On Friday, the RMT rail union called on the the Scottish Government to nationalise the Caledonian Sleeper which runs between Inverness and London.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said:  “We have pressured the Scottish Government alongside politicians and others to do the right thing and take Caledonian Sleeper into public ownership.

“It is what our members on the service want and would be in the interests of the travelling public.”

There have been no discussions between the Scottish Government and Serco over extending the contract, according to The Scotsman.

It is expected that the Sleeper service would be run alongside the recently-nationalised ScotRail from which it was split in 2015.