The debate on rail privatisation often seems to focus on very narrow issues. Those on both sides of the argument seem to be able to employ a mass of statistics to prove their point. Proponents of privatisation suggest, with some credibility, that all was reasonably well with the privatised...

Railway privatisation has been a mixture of success and failure. Increasing passenger numbers and improvements in rolling stock have been offset by failures in infrastructure maintenance, service quality and most notably cost management. These outcomes can be attributed to the suboptimal...