THE PRIVATISATION OF BRITISH RAIL

Abstract

A more efficient public transport system could help to solve the serious environmental and social problems caused by growing demands for travel and mobility. The privatisation of railways is widely viewed as one way to make public transport more efficient, competitive, and market-oriented. This paper describes the recent privatisation of British Rail and the resulting vertical and horizontal separation of UK railway operations, in relation to the approaches used in four other countries. The paper first discusses some effects of the growth of mobility, and relates the history of the British railway network to 1990. It then briefly reviews the Swiss, Japanese, Swedish, and German models for rail privatisation and restructuring. The main part of the paper discusses the following aspects of the privatisation during the 1990s: (1) arguments for and against the privatisation; (2) the objectives for the privatisation; (3) the new railway structure; (4) Railtrack, the new monopoly rail infrastructure provider; (5) the privatisation of rail freight, and the operations of the two principal private freight companies, English Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) and Freightliner; (6) the privatisation of the train operating companies (TOCs); and (7) the financial implications. Several conclusions are presented.