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Railways needed nationalizing post WW2 as they had been run down and stripped by private owners. Without state intervention the nation would have fell apart without the key transport mechanism - railways. The government had to act for the greater good of the nation.
The 19th century rail magnets hyped up investment bumph of the new wonder transport, as did Thatcher with Railtrack. They would invest and get small investors along as the fall guys. The railway would be built and they would buy land adjacent to the railways before and under construction of the railway. After completion they would cash in, even if they never made money and drew out it never mattered, and leave the capital debt of railway construction to the small investors. Dividends were never paid.
The rail companies were then left with lucrative land they bought for pennies. The railway lines hyped land prices. They could charge high rents around the railways. That is how the legalised scam worked. That is what happened with the Bishops Castle Railway. The administrators ran it for 70 years. The landowners around the railway gained because of the economic growth the railway brought, not what they particularly did.
Thatcher said the railways and coal mines (most output went to power stations) were not making a profit. She did not have the intelligence to see that they were creating economic growth. The massive gap in the governments 18th century accounting system did not detect the money leaking away via a massive sluice, the LAND market, as landowners creamed it off. The sluice should have been closed and the money captured and cycled back into the mechanism that assists in creating the growth in the first place - transport. This sluice is still wide open.
Private monopoly Railtrack was bound to fail, as the private railways failed in the mid 20th century falling into the arms of the state, as they did in 1948. The taxpayers picked up the tab as the rail companies went off with thousands of acres of lucrative increased value land. Railtrack was a repeat of the 19th century rail rip-offs, but created and backed by a modern Tory government. thousands of small investors lost a lot of money on failure. Instead of the private rail magnets preying on the small investors, it was the government.
Rail Networks, like Metros, Create Economic Growth
Many have no idea what influence rail networks have on a community - they are a part of the economic growth of a community and sometimes the key aspect, as in rapid-transit rail in cities. Full metros create economic growth all around.
Real Gains From Railways is in Land Values
Look at British rail magnet George Hudson in the early to mid 1800s. He made his money from the increased value of the land the railways created, not charging for tickets. He knew where the money was made with railways - it was not in running them.
Hudson had his own construction company and bought up land in prime spots where his railways went. He knew before others where his railways would go and where the stations would be. He creamed it off in increased land values and charging high rents, and allowed the railways to fall into disrepair as ticket prices were just enough to maintain the network in the long run, with the government having to take it over it was so neglected. Private profit and the debts socialised with us picking up the tabs.
Some people misguidedly say we should privatise all railways, and all to do with them - so they can cream it off again, and yet again the taxpayer picks up the debts in the end. And they then blame public ownership as being useless and inefficient, when all the taxpayer did, or will do, is pick up the shambles - as usual. And the private sharks make off with the gains.
Politician, Morrison at the same time as Hudson wanted the French system of public ownership and renting the lines, or time on the lines, and use the rents to maintain the infrastructure. He was overridden by a lobby by Hudson. The railways eventually declined to the point of being ramshackle all over the country. We are going to make all the same mistakes again.
The Current Tax System is Destructive - Encourages Free Riders
The difference between a highway robber and a free riders is that the free rider does not have to draw a gun to take what belongs to others.
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