Title: Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways? - BBC News
Headings: Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways?
Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways?
Nationalisation of the railways
Rail services around the world
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Content: The rail industry's problems are the result of government interference, argues free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs. " The last thing the sector needs is even more political meddling, but that is exactly what nationalisation would entail," says Dr Richard Wellings, the institute's head of transport. He advocates selling off Network Rail and removing the separation between track ownership and train operation. Even opponents of privatisation, such as rail writer Christian Wolmar, agree that the Railway Act led to a messy sector that is not really truly privatised. " As one railway manager who used to work for British Rail and then spent 20 years with a private operator, never tires of telling me 'the Department has far more involvement in the day to day running of the railways than it ever did in the days of BR,'" Wolmar wrote. Supporters argue that this messy system is delivering. Since privatisation, passenger journeys have shot up from 761 million passengers in 1995/96 to 1.58 billion in 2013/14. Passenger statistics are doing well in comparison with Europe too. Since 2008 the UK has seen a 17% growth in passenger kilometres, the second highest behind Austria. Rail services around the world
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Canada - nationalised, run by VIA Rail Canada, though many of the train lines used are owned by private freight companies
France - nationalised, run by SNCF
Germany - nationalised, Deutsche Bahn, but regional transport authorities are responsible for tendering local train services
Italy - nationalised, run by Trenitalia, but runs on a similar local level as Germany
Japan - mainly privately owned, though the high-speed Shinkansen lines and some smaller lines are still publicly-funded
US - passenger services state run by Amtrak, but it operates in part on privately-owned train lines
On the other hand, subsidy has grown.