The infrastructure in the UK is owned by Network Rail, which is a central government body. The failure has been the privatisation of the ToCs (train operating

The infrastructure in the UK is owned by Network Rail, which is a central government body. The failure has been the privatisation of the ToCs (train operating companies), and the lack of competition between them. There are many other places in the EU where the incumbent was split up into smaller, state-owned companies and then the ToCs have been opened up to competition, with good results. The problem with the British situation is there is essentially a monopoly granted to a single company for a number of years — and this doesn't give much incentive to invest.