History of Rail Transport in Great Britain - 1995 Onwards: Post-privatisation

1995 Onwards: Post-privatisation

Since privatisation, numbers of passengers have grown rapidly; by 2010 they were carrying more passengers than at any time since the 1920s.

The railways have become significantly safer since privatisation. However, the public image of rail travel was severely damaged following some significant accidents after privatisation. These included the Southall rail crash (where a train with faulty automatic train protection equipment went through a red light), the Ladbroke Grove rail crash (also caused by a train going through a red light) and the Hatfield accident (caused by a rail fragmenting due to the development of microscopic cracks).

Following the Hatfield accident, the rail infrastructure company Railtrack imposed over 1,200 emergency speed restrictions across its network and instigated an extremely costly nationwide track replacement programme. The consequential severe operational disruption to the national network and the company's spiralling costs set in motion the series of events which resulted in the ultimate collapse of the company and its replacement with Network Rail, a state-owned, not-for-dividend company.

As franchisees (most notably GNER) have over-bid to renew their franchises, it is believed that some will have wiped out their profitability in the light of rising subsidy repayments back to the Exchequer. If the franchise holders withdraw, responsibility for operating trains will go back to the Department of Transport, further fuelling calls for a full-scale re-nationalisation. However, the recently terminated Connex South Eastern franchise, while "nationalised" as South Eastern Trains until the end of the franchise period, was subsequently re-franchised as Southeastern.