Competitor emerges for Finland’s state-owned railway company VR
Competitor emerges for Finland’s state-owned railway company VR
SUOMEN LÄHIJUNAT on Thursday said it has taken ownership of 11 commuter trains previously owned and operated by the state-owned railway company, VR, making it the first private company to own and operate passenger rail services in Finland. The company was established last year in order to deliver re...
I'm loving the deregulation of the train business in Europe, now we need to decouple the infrastructure from the train operators so we can have an even playing field.
Fuck that shit. We have that in Sweden and it turned a fully functioning train system into a gurgutated mess.
I mean, if the option is between a private Monopoly and a collection of private companies, I'll take the second option.
Here in Germany Deutsche bahn used to be good before it got mostly privatized and for profit. Plus because they control the infrastructure, they make it difficult for upstarts to use the network.
It happened in France and it's been terrible. Not all train traffic should be for profit, especially small poorly frequented lines in rural areas.
Any country in the EU should already have their train operators and infrastructure operators decoupled. This has been a thing since the 90s, if I'm recalling correctly. For instance in the case of the Netherlands the national train operator is NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and the infrastructure operator is ProRail.
I believe privatizing and liberalizing the railways is a mistake that will ultimately harm the traveler more than it helps. It may be a necessary evil for improved international train travel, but for domestic trips I don't think the EU should be imposing on the member states how they operate their railways.
I'm loving the deregulation of the train business in Europe
You meant the UK, which has taken said idea a bit too far?