Campaigners are calling for an extension to the Borders Railway on its first anniversary after the number of passengers using the service exceeded expectations.

The Queen officially opened the line, which runs from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, on September 9 last year - the day she became Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Trains had resumed running on the former Waverley line three days earlier.

Transport bosses set an original target of 650,000 passengers in the first year but demand for the service exceeded expectations with almost 700,000 trips made in the first six months of the line reopening.

The project has not been without its critics, however, and figures revealed just 28% of trains arrived on time at the start of August.

Fresh statistics also showed more than 70 trains were cancelled over the first ten days of the month.

The Campaign for Borders Rail led calls for the reinstatement of the line and now wants to see work on further enhancement of the existing line to cope with its success and an extension to serve more communities.

Chairman Allan McLean said: "Official studies into the potential for future extension of rail services to bring direct benefits to even more places should be seen as just the beginning of the next stage of railway development in the Scottish Borders.

"I appreciate that it will take time to extend the railway. In the meantime, there is an opportunity to enhance the existing service to make it more reliable.

"Cancellations and delays to the current trains must not hinder future development. In fact, recent experience can inform the future so that lessons are learned to maximise the very real benefits that a reliable train service can bring.

"It would be great to see trains running again between Edinburgh and Carlisle through Hawick for the first time since closure in 1969. It has already proved wonderful to see trains through Galashiels once more."

The route re-established part of the former Waverley line, which fell victim to the controversial Beeching cuts in 1969, leaving the Borders region without any access to the national rail network.

The near £300m investment is the longest new domestic railway built in the UK for more than a century and has proved popular with both tourists and commuters.

Transport consultant David Spaven, who also campaigned for the reintroduction of the railway, said the hitches in the first year were the penalty for the project "not being properly planned".

Reducing the length of double track from the original 16.5 miles to 9.5 miles has had a "knock-on effect", he said.

"The trains have been less than reliable, so there are problems on that front as well. They need to be dealt with urgently to stop commuters saying 'well - this is not reliable enough for me, I'm going to go back to using the car or the bus'," he said.

Mr Spaven welcomed the spike in the number of visitors going to the Borders, and said an extension of the line should be considered but only after the current issues were resolved.

He also highlighted that initial forecasts for passenger numbers were too low, meaning that there was littled wonder that the number of trips had exceeded expectations.

He added: "I'm just worried that there is too much complacency about this."