Rail Privatisation – How Is It Going?

The 1993 Railways Act provided for the privatisation of British Rail in the form of franchising of passenger services and outright sale of all other parts of the business. The privatisation was unusually complex, with the existing single organisation being divided into more than 80 separate companies, the intention being to create competition not just in the form of competing train operating companies, but also for the supply of services such as rolling stock and track maintenance, wherever possible. The aim of this paper is to review events since the process of rail privatisation in Britain really started in April 1994. It is based partly on the publications of the relevant bodies and the technical press but partly on conversations with those in the industry. It is divided into five sections, looking in turn at Railtrack and the ROSCOs, the passenger franchising process, the freight sector and other businesses before seeking to draw some overall conclusions.