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‘A Very Costly Industry’: The cost of Britain’s privatised railway

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  • McCartney, S.
  • Stittle, J.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the financial performance of the British passenger rail industry since privatisation in the mid-1990s. This experiment, which not merely transferred a state-owned and fully integrated industry into the private sector, but dismantled it into over 100 separate entities, has generated considerable and highly critical academic literature. A major contention of this literature is that, contrary to the predictions of its proponents, privatisation has largely failed to improve efficiency and has actually increased costs, or more exactly, costs are higher than they would have been, had privatisation not taken place.

Suggested Citation

  • McCartney, S. & Stittle, J., 2017. "‘A Very Costly Industry’: The cost of Britain’s privatised railway," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:49:y:2017:i:c:p:1-17
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2017.04.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Michael G. Pollitt & Andrew S. J. Smith, 2002. "The restructuring and privatisation of British Rail: was it really that bad?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 463-502, December.
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    6. Carmen A. Li & John Stittle, 2014. "Privatisation and Franchising of British Train Operations," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(1), pages 53-65, March.
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    13. Jupe, Robert & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Neoliberalism, consultants and the privatisation of public policy formulation: The case of Britain's rail industry," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 65-85.
    14. Andrew Bowman, 2015. "An illusion of success: The consequences of British rail privatisation," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 51-63, March.
    15. Robert Jupe, 2006. "A Fudge? Network Rail? Status in the Rail Industry," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 148-150, June.
    16. Gourvish, Terry, 2002. "British Rail 1974-1997: From Integration to Privatisation," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199250059.
    17. Jupe, Robert, 2009. "A “fresh start” or the “worst of all worlds”? A critical financial analysis of the performance and regulation of Network Rail in Britain’s privatised railway system," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 175-204.
    18. David Parker, 2013. "The privatized railways: problems foreseen," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 313-319, September.
    19. Bowman, Andrew, 2015. "An illusion of success: The consequences of British rail privatisation," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 51-63.
    20. Sean McCartney & John Stittle, 2013. "‘Failing to deliver’—the privatized British rail freight industry," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 321-328, September.
    21. McCartney, Sean & Stittle, John, 2012. "‘Engines of Extravagance’: The privatised British railway rolling stock industry," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 153-167.
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    Cited by:

    1. Oliver Lewis & Avner Offer, 2021. "Railways as Patient Capital," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _195, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
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    3. Philip Booth, 2020. "The future of public service broadcasting and the funding and ownership of the BBC," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 324-343, October.

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