A rolling stock company (ROSCO) or rolling stock leasing company owns and maintains railway engines and carriages which are leased to train operating companies who operate the trains.
Rolling stock companies have been criticized as rentier capitalist, in that they add little value to the end product versus direct ownership of the trains themselves, and extract large profits from what were once in many cases government owned and government-financed assets.[1]
- ^ Dennis, Gareth (2022). "Britain's privatised railways". IPPR Progressive Review. 29 (3–4): 234–243 – via Wiley Online Library.