UK Government Petition to lower fuel prices

[Peter Korsten]

Gert van Santen schreef:

> OK, I have to say that Switzerland had a very good railway net, 
> and it has been getting better (but it has always been good). 
> Perhaps it works there because they are not in the EU?

What the EU has done is separate the infrastructure ownership (the 
rails) and the services run on that infrastructure (passenger and 
freight trains). The latter two have been split as well, although often 
you see that the cargo arm is 100% owned by the parent company.

This is the case for the Swiss federal railways, that have three 
divisions (passenger, freight and infrastructure) and two groups (real 
estate, like stations, and core services, like financial and personnel). 
The Swiss are pretty much following the EU in these things.

The former Dutch state railways have a similar structure, except that 
the rail infrastructure is owned by ProRail and that the freight arm has 
been sold to Raillion from Germany, nowadays called DB Schenker.

One thing this has done is revitalised rail freight in the Netherlands, 
although there's still a long way to go: ships and trucks still take the 
vast majority of freight.

Another effect is that long distance travel is more or less 
self-sustaining, whilst travel on a regional level is partly subsidised 
(but this is allowed by the EU).

Perhaps the railways were more punctual in the past, but they lost large 
amounts of money, and passenger travel has multiplied over the past few 
decades. All in all, things aren't too bad.

But one should be careful: all-out privatisation without an independent 
regulator, as happened in the UK, is a recipe for disaster - sometimes 
literally so.

- Peter