On 12/03/2011 00:48, john b wrote:

Many UK-based train companies have been successful (or at least,
profitable) at running public transport overseas - Stagecoach, First
and NEG all do, and Arriva did well enough that Deutsche Bahn paid two
billion euros for them and put Arriva management in charge of all its
international operations.

Though they is the issue that foreign state-owned[1] companies can buy
up "British" businesses, but we have no equivalent doing the opposite.
BRB Residuary isn't going to be bidding for any German operating
contracts, and while French companies can run our passenger trains,
British firms - state or private - can't run theirs. If the Arriva deal
goes wrong, will the Bundestag allow DB to go the way of GNER and NXEC?


[1] Germans often claim DB is "privatised" because it is structured as a
company rather than as a ministry of railways. By that definition, many
British nationalised industries were privately owned, not nationalised.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK