Sorry for a double-reply, but I missed this bit before… > I think at this point there is a political consensus that its been a complete mess and a botched priv

Sorry for a double-reply, but I missed this bit before… > I think at this point there is a political consensus that its been a complete mess and a botched privatisation that either need to be redone or just be re-nationalised, though Conservatives try to not talk about it if they can (they implemented it). Regardless of whether they're willing to, the non-ministerial Competition and Markets Authority undertook a project to "looks at whether increasing competition in passenger rail services could lead to better value for money and improve service quality"[0]. Nobody is bound to the results, but it seems compatible with what the Conservative policy has been: keep the privately run operators, but have them compete on-track (i.e., both run services) compared with the current status of just having them compete off-track (i.e., bidding for the franchise). [0]: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/passenger-rail-services-competition-policy-project https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/passenger-rail-services-competi...