Hearthly wrote:
I travelled around the UK on the trains a lot in the late 80s and through the 90s (up until I moved to the IOM in 1996), and it was amazing how quickly things went downhill following privatisation.
Fucking batshit stupid idea from the outset.
It's fucking idiotic because any fool could see that it doesn't actually work with the normal principles of capitalism.
Normal business: "There are many other companies out there offering the same products and/or services so I'd better do good stuff for a reasonable price or people won't give me their money."
Train company: "Literally no other company can offer this service and lots of people have no choice but to use it. Also, my right to exploit this situation--and my responsibility for maintaining it--will be stripped from me in a few years regardless. There is no incentive at all not to make as much money as possible and fuck all the customers."