Re:UK Rail services to come under unified state control
by VBprogrammer on Thursday May 20, 2021 @11:27AM
(#27222393)
> Yes, you could. There is an East Coast Mainline and West Coast Mainline and they competed loads over the London-Edinburgh route.
I've done that route dozens of times in the past. I think it's stretching things to say they are in competition though. For Glasgow it was 40 minutes faster to go up the West coast (if you don't mind the smell of the toilets on the Pendolino) and similarly the East Coast was faster for Edinburgh because it avoided going all the way out to Carluke and back. Of course that missing out the majority of people using those trains were using it starting at an intermediate station, making any competition slightly moot.
Re:UK Rail services to come under unified state control
by globular-toast on Thursday May 20, 2021 @11:40AM
(#27222592)
I was referring more to the historical competition[0]. I don't think it's as relevant today.
Yes, you could. There is an East Coast Mainline and West Coast Mainline and they competed loads over the London-Edinburgh route.
But I think in this age of high-speed trains, overhead electrification and 4+ wide tracks, railways are well and truly a natural monopoly.
But natural monopoly is not about can't have competition, it's about being thoroughly uneconomical to have competition.