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SNCF is already a quasi-governmental entity, almost identical to Amtrak in its structure, and as far as I know, manages both tracks and passenger services.

The UK splits its rail infrastructure in two -- Network Rail, which maintains/builds intercity tracks, while passenger services are awarded as franchises to private operators.

It should be noted that these franchises (in the UK and elsewhere) are frequently subsidized, and are usually awarded with very specific guidelines from the government, dictating how often services are to run, to what destinations, and usually include reliability mandates as well.

I wouldn't be hugely opposed to nationalizing our tracks, and privatizing (or simply separating) the passenger services. However, we more or less already did this with Conrail in the 1970s, and then sold it off to private companies for a pittance, once it started being successful in the 1990s (funny how that works, huh?).

Coincidentally, these two private companies are now the source of ~75% of Amtrak's delays on the east coast.

by andrew on May 27, 2011 11:35 am • link • report