"The New Labour government has favoured the deployment of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to provide investment in transport infrastructure. The results of this policy on the railways have, however, been disappointing in terms of cost and efficiency. Public transport PPPs require complex...

In March 2006, the Rail Regulator made a controversial decision to award open access rights to a new train operator on the east coast route. A 10-year franchise had been granted to GNER on this route in 2005 on the assumption that there would not be competition from open access operators. This...

In July 2004, the Government published a white paper on 'The Future of Rail', which outlined its planned third attempt to reform the railways. This article reviews the new blueprint for rail, in the context of the performance of the industry and its regulatory bodies. The changes proposed are...

This article examines a major UK value-for-money study by Sir Roy McNulty in the context of the neoliberal public policy environment. This environment favoured rail's privatization, and subsequent reform attempts, which maintained the privatization model, have done little to address rail's...

Rail privatization led to a large increase in both costs and subsidy, and there have been substantial performance and regulatory problems with rail franchises. This article examines these problems in the context of recent developments, including the impact of the recession on train operators and...