Having multiple companies using the same state owned tracks would be even better. Competition is always good, and you really don’t want a monopoly, which is what you’d most likely get with everything being state owned.
We’ve got one big railway in Austria (ÖBB), which is owned by the government. And then we’ve got one smaller, private one (WESTbahn) which only goes to certain cities and in a certain direction. The private one’s prices are usually way better, even though they pay the government to be able to use the rails.
Have you seen the United Kingdom rail system? We have government owned tracks and private operators and it’s a nightmare. The government literally had to take over from one of the operators not long ago. We basically have all the problems with government owned infrastructure and all of the problems with private businesses. The worst part is the trains are not owned by either the train operators or the government but by rolling stock companies. There are also tight regulations on the trains used which doesn’t seem to help in this case.
Having multiple companies using the same state owned tracks would be even better. Competition is always good, and you really don’t want a monopoly, which is what you’d most likely get with everything being state owned.
We’ve got one big railway in Austria (ÖBB), which is owned by the government. And then we’ve got one smaller, private one (WESTbahn) which only goes to certain cities and in a certain direction. The private one’s prices are usually way better, even though they pay the government to be able to use the rails.
Have you seen the United Kingdom rail system? We have government owned tracks and private operators and it’s a nightmare. The government literally had to take over from one of the operators not long ago. We basically have all the problems with government owned infrastructure and all of the problems with private businesses. The worst part is the trains are not owned by either the train operators or the government but by rolling stock companies. There are also tight regulations on the trains used which doesn’t seem to help in this case.