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A comment on Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain. Parent comment

Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by dffdsa432 on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:35AM (#36679000)
The USA's rail lines are privatized and they're anything but "shitty" and "expensive" considering they're lower cost than trucking.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by lostlogin on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:43AM (#36679086)
US rail has been in the news lately, with apocalyptic skies and chemical rain. Safety issues abound. What are you seeing that I don’t?
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by dffdsa432 on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:47AM (#36679126)
There are 3 million rail cars moved per day that haven't produced apocalyptic skies and chemical rain. You misrepresent the overall safety of private rail lines.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by katbyte on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @08:29AM (#36680044)
Us rail lines are horribly mismanaged https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jNkYNjADoZg
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by ben_w on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:45AM (#36679110)
My experience of American railways as a tourist is having to show my passport to book a ticket from Davis to Sacramento (I assume I also did that on other trips like to SFO but don't remember), and it being expensive.

My experience in the UK and Germany is show up, pay, go, and it being cheaper.

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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by dffdsa432 on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:49AM (#36679137)
US consumer rail way is a quasi public corporation (Amtrak) that has lost money for decades and is still funded to the tune of over $1 billion per year. You are confusing that with private US rails.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by ben_w on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:52AM (#36679169)
If you're going to insist on focusing on that, I think you'd already missed the point of what you were replying to in your comment that I replied to.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by dffdsa432 on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @07:01AM (#36679242)
The parent is still wrong. Customers of private rail lines can use competing services (trucking) which they often do.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by Qwertious on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @10:02AM (#36681128)
US private rails own the railways and, while in theory they are required to give way to passenger rail, are so long and take so much time to cross that in practice passenger rail is forced to adhere to the time-schedule of private rail.

This is arguably illegal and only exists because the govt refuses to enforce the obvious interpretation of the agreement.

Meanwhile, the US DOT has historically always taken the approach of "the solution is more highways. What's the problem?", losing far more than $1B/year.

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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by ClumsyPilot on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:59AM (#36679226)
US rail is okau for cargo, but there are third world countries with better passenger services.
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Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain by giaour on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @08:08AM (#36679833)
We're talking about passenger rail here, not cargo. Amtrak has a legally mandated monopoly, so you can only compete with them by building your own rails or using a different travel mode (e.g., bus or air).

If you find their service to be good and cheap, I can only assume you've never ridden a train in Europe.

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