elgordino

There are examples of successful competition from new operators in the UK. Eg Lumo offering a direct LNER competitor from Scotland to London, generally for cheaper tickets than LNER too.

Hull Trains restarted direct trains from Hull to London and also compete with LNER.

Grand Central started a bunch of routes in the north to London and aren’t, mostly, directly competing with LNER but run routes that previously required a connection.

The other two open access operators are Heathrow Express, and Eurostar.

Eurostar will soon face competition from Virgin Trains after space at the depot was allocated to them.

Companies frequently try to launch these services but it’s up to the Office of Rail and Road as to which get approved. They all have to run without subsidies, and none of them are being nationalised. They’ll continue to run the same as today, in the same was freight services will.

Despite all the problems caused by privatisation generally, Chiltern Railways are considered to be one of the success stories. Turning round a failing line into a more reliable and higher frequency service.

Let’s hope GBR can continue to build on these improvements.