Privatisation of British Rail

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The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industry was in part motivated by the enactment of EU Directive 91/440 in 1991, which aimed to create a more efficient railway network by creating greater competition.^[1]

British Railways (BR) had been in state ownership since 1948, under the control of the British Railways Board (BRB). Under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher elected in 1979, various state-owned businesses were gradually sold off, including various auxiliary and supporting functions related to the railways – Sealink ferries and British Transport Hotels by 1984, Travellers Fare catering by 1988 and British Rail Engineering Limited (train manufacturing) by 1989.

It was under Thatcher's successor John Major that the railways themselves were privatised. Under the Railways Act 1993, the operations of the BRB were broken up and sold off to various parties while various regulatory functions transferred to the newly created office of the Rail Regulator. Ownership of the infrastructure, including the larger stations, passed to the new privately owned company Railtrack, while track maintenance and renewal assets were sold to 13 companies across the network. Ownership of the passenger trains themselves passed to three rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) – the stock being leased out to passenger train operating companies (TOCs) awarded contracts through a new system of rail franchising overseen by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF). Ownership and operation of rail freight in Great Britain passed to two companies – English Welsh & Scottish (EWS) and Freightliner, less than the originally intended six, although numerous new entrants in the sector have since appeared.

The privatisation of the railways was very controversial at the time, and still is, and the impact of this policy is hotly debated. Despite opposition from the Labour Party, who gained power in 1997 under Tony Blair, the process has never been reversed wholesale by any later government, and the system has remained largely unaltered. During the late 2010s, it was announced that a transition towards Great British Railways, a contract-based model to replace the franchise system, would be undertaken. A significant change came in 2001 with the collapse of Railtrack, which saw its assets passed to the state-owned Network Rail (NR), while track maintenance was also brought in-house under NR in 2004. The regulatory structures have also been amended subsequently.