Canada privatized our railways in the 1990s. While it created a hugely profitable company for shareholders, it has been a pestilence on Canadian society since.

Canada privatized our railways in the 1990s. While it created a hugely profitable company for shareholders, it has been a pestilence on Canadian society since. Canadians do benefit from a somewhat more efficient freight network, but overall we've seen an unsafe, poorly maintained, but highly efficiently run rail network. It is no longer possible for Canadian provinces or cities to make any effective use of infrastructure that we had built and maintained for over 100 years. My city had developed a plan for light rail, but required some access to CN tracking, and CN refused to even review a proposal. They also launched a major lawsuit against the city/town to try to get out of their commitment to maintain some safety infrastructure around their property. Their attitude seemed to be "we have deeper pockets than you". In my own neighbourhood, there is a track that runs through a railway cut. A group came together and had built a beautiful multi use trail. They asked for an easement on a part of the CN right of way/property that was nowhere near the trackage and had been used as a path since time immemorial. What did CN do? Within weeks they erected a 6 foot fence around the entire property. They never even responded to the letters. They freight business absolutely did benefit from private ownership. The workings of the capital markets have created an efficient machine. The trackage they run on should never have been privatized. In return Canada will never have any decent passenger rail and no city pairing in Canada will ever be able to build a reliable or reasonably fast rail network. Failure of privatization is in a lot of ways a failure of aptitude, or an exercise in grift. I'm not sure which exactly. It was either not well thought out, or very well thought out... depending on which side of the table you might have been sitting at.