What effects did the privatisation of British Rail have on the railway network in Britain?
Firstly the railways are not really fully privatised; Network Rail owns the infrastructure and although termed a “not for profit” company, they are effectively nationalised. The various privatised rail companies – First Great Western, Virgin etc bid to the government’s Department of Transport to run the services for a set period of time, usually 7 years. The government specifies the frequencies and number of trains for each company and exercises this control inflexibly. The short period of each franchise and the strict controls discourage the rail companies from making investment or exercising their full range of entrepreneurial skills. However, after a very rocky start, rail privatisation, such as it is. has resulted in a 50% rise in use of the national network and hundreds of new trains. Punctuality is well over 90% for most companies, and marketing and train cleanliness have vastly im proved. Hundreds of new trains have entered service too; frequencies on many lines have doubled. Br
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