Rail Partners' report, Harnessing the commercial expertise of the private sector, sets out how private sector train operators helped grow the railway in the years leading up the pandemic.
Since privatisation, the expertise, capability, determination and agility of the private sector played a vital role in transforming Britain’s railway finances. Private operators helped to double passenger numbers and grow revenue at more than twice the rate of GDP, turning a £2 billion annual operating loss under British Rail into an operating surplus in many of the years before the pandemic. This report documents these successes, and sets out that revenue incentives and greater commercial freedom for private sector train operators would help accelerate revenue growth and reduce the taxpayer burden as the railway recovers from the pandemic.
