The Privatisation of Britain’s Railways: A Perspective from the First 30 Years

This paper reviews the first 30 years of privatisation of Britain’s railways since 1994, for which Foster was a key adviser. The troubled history of this reform has obscured the fact that the original model proved unable to fund the major rail investment that the Government sought from 2000 onwards, as rail policy shifted from subsidy reduction to growth and decarbonisation. The paper identifies the substantial changes that were made to do this. It suggests that Foster’s major contribution to rail economics should be marked by putting renewed effort into drawing out more economic insights from this real-life experiment for use in future decision-making.