The private model does work elsewhere in the world but I'm not sure whether we completely understand the differences and what makes these other countries work s

The private model does work elsewhere in the world but I'm not sure whether we completely understand the differences and what makes these other countries work so well. On the other hand, we tend to have rose-tinted memories of how cheap everything was in the old days, which I don't think is true. For the level of subsidy that our railways have, they are probably not actually that bad. Many people have said before that even places like France might do well on the high speed lines but their secondary routes can be as rough as ours and they get much more investment.