On 22/06/2018 17:56, Theo wrote:
In uk.railway Recliner wrote:
Probably not, but the structure of the privatised industry forces higher
standards than if it was one monolithic company. A modern day BR would
probably only be about as safe as DB, Renfe or SNCF. Our privatised railway
is much better.

How? I don't see TOCs focusing on safety because it hurts the bottom line
if you kill customers.

I've seen it argued that privatisation created a perception that it was
Someone Else's Money being spent, so if politicians wanted gold-plated
safety they could convince themselves that the private sector was paying
for this, while the private sector could think "if that's really what
they want, we will just price it in to what we charge them".

This combined with the public and media concern/hysteria to reduce cost
constraints which might otherwise have been faced by "something must be
done, and this is something" approaches to safety.



--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK