On Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:36:08 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2020 08:57:41 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
Oops. Also it seems I'm rather out of date on French railways. When did
SNCF
become a train operator only?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Infra

There's a surprise - more interference from the EU in things it has no
business being concerned with.

It was the EU taking its lead from the UK, in an effort to encourage open
access and international train operators. The aim is to deliver a better,

The less said of the mess John Majors government made of the railways the
better.

cheaper service to customers through competition and innovation. It's
worked in quite a few countries, but the old state monopolies, particularly
DB and SNCF, work hard to block it.

Obviously its impossible to know what state BR would be in today if it had
continued but been given the same level of funding as the current system, but
I suspect it wouldn't have been much different plus there's a good chance we'd
have more R&D in this country.