[Closed] I thought we had privatised the railways?

we have sort of. I could be wrong here, so I apologise in advance, but the purchase and allocation of rolling stock, track etc is still centralised.

* Awaits flaming.

privatise the profits, nationalise the costs. I thought everyone knew that?

'Twas privatised, but always subsidised, and then Railtrack and National Express East Coast pretty much failed as private companies (ie the government refused to bail them out) and got effectively re-nationalised to keep them going.

The bids to run the private franchises were always how little subsidy you wanted, not how much you were willing to pay for the franchise.

I paraphrase history somewhat but that's about the long and short of it.

privatise the profits, nationalise the costs. I thought everyone knew that?

Sorry yeah what was I thinking? At the same time, fares are going up way above inflation, as the plan is to get passengers to bear more of the cost of the service. How about getting the private companies making millions of pounds in profits to bear more of the cost of the service?

How about getting the private companies making millions of pounds in profits to bear more of the cost of the service?

You can't do that. Then they would have no incentives. Tehn how would we run the railways more cheaply and efficiently than under BR
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.Actully the railways receive far more subsidy now than they did pre priovatisation as duplication means costs rise plus profits need to be found from somewhere