Chris

“Nationalised” and “privatised” are binary states that have never been helpful in describing the state of the railway - certainly not since Railtrack was forcibly bankrupted in 2001 by withholding of government support, and replaced by National Rail, which is state owned but still subject to an independent regulator, similar to the privatised utilities. Most of the services that run on the state-owned tracks only do so because they hold a franchise awarded by the government.