Grayrigg derailment… ten years on

Interesting story. Apparently the train picked the switch, to use North American parlance.

I think the event was caused by the splitting of responsibility for the track and trains when British Rail was foolishly broken up from a daft ideological notion.

george matthews wrote:I think the event was caused by the splitting of responsibility for the track and trains when British Rail was foolishly broken up from a daft ideological notion.

"Privatzation:" pseudo free enterprise.

Apparently the entire EU has been seized by a similar mania for separating infrastructure from operations.

ExCon90 wrote:Apparently the entire EU has been seized by a similar mania for separating infrastructure from operations.

Indeed. There is some kind of Directive requiring the splitting of railway companies into the two entities.

Does anyone know the origin of this Received Wisdom in the EU that separation is the way to go?

ExCon90 wrote:Does anyone know the origin of this Received Wisdom in the EU that separation is the way to go?

I think the purpose of the policy is to allow the operating companies - the wheel users - to compete with each other. I think this is a notion thought up by theoreticians without much or any practical experience.

...so they learned nothing from the British experience. (I think I read that back when privatisation was under discussion Margaret Thatcher told John Major not to push it.)

Well it all depends on what Country you are talking about, compare France and Germany. In both countries the Infrastructure is theoretically separate from the National Railway. In France you have no Independent Railway Regulator and no competition for the provision of passenger services so the per train mile cost of operating non-TGV trains is 10-20% higher than in Germany where there is a lot of competition to operate Regional and Commuter services.