In Japan the railway companies (which are pseudo private in the way a lot of things are in Japan) run the railways effectively at or below cost and the profits

In Japan the railway companies (which are pseudo private in the way a lot of things are in Japan) run the railways effectively at or below cost and the profits are made on property development and leasing on the surrounding land. In the UK the railway companies try to run profits on railway operation while the taxpayer subsidizes them and the surrounding land is owned by property developers who are making profits that are staggering. The Conservative government is also doing stuff like donating 38 million pounds to govia thameslink in profit compensation for a strike they triggered. It's taxpayers and passengers subsidizing property developers' and TOC profits, and the government/TOCs seems to be trying to get the TOC wage bills down so that TOCs and property developers can make even more.