IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecaffa/v34y2014i2p255-266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Privatisation of the UK Railway Industry: An Experiment in Railway Structure

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Wellings

Abstract

The British rail network was privatised in the mid- to late 1990s. However, the sector was heavily regulated and not permitted to evolve according to market processes. Indeed, the government imposed a complex and fragmented structure on the industry which ran counter to traditional railway practices. As a consequence, economies of scale and scope were lost, while transaction costs were increased. There was a negative impact on costs and safety. Given the disappointing outcomes, there is a strong case for reforming the sector by facilitating the development of a privately owned and vertically integrated rail system.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Wellings, 2014. "The Privatisation of the UK Railway Industry: An Experiment in Railway Structure," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 255-266, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:34:y:2014:i:2:p:255-266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecaf.12083
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dent, Jeremy F., 1991. "Accounting and organizational cultures: A field study of the emergence of a new organizational reality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 705-732.
    2. 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.
    3. Gourvish, Terry, 2002. "British Rail 1974-1997: From Integration to Privatisation," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199250059.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Niemietz, Kristian & Wellings, Richard, 2016. "Stuck in Brussels: Should transport policy be determined at EU level?," IEA Discussion Papers 71, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    2. Wellings, Richard (Ed.), 2022. "Planes, trains & automobiles: The future of transport after Covid-19," IEA Discussion Papers 104, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    3. Niemietz, Kristian & Zuluaga, Diego, 2016. "Hire authority: Turning statutory regulation into private regulation for the UK's taxi industry," IEA Discussion Papers 76, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    4. Herawati Zetha Rahman & Perdana Miraj & Azaria Andreas, 2019. "Exploring Public–Private Partnership Scheme in Operation and Maintenance Stage of Railway Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Booth, Philip, 2019. "Regulation without the state: The example of financial services," IEA Discussion Papers 97, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    6. Snowdon, Christopher, 2018. "Joint venture: Estimating the size and potential of the UK cannabis market," IEA Discussion Papers 90, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    7. Niemietz, Kristian, 2021. "Wizards of Oz? What the UK can learn from Australia's healthcare system," IEA Discussion Papers 102, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    8. Bourne, Ryan & Shackleton, J. R., 2016. "And how much to you earn? Public pressure for government regulation of pay," IEA Discussion Papers 73, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    9. Amit Patwardhan & Adithya Thaduri & Ramin Karim, 2021. "Distributed Ledger for Cybersecurity: Issues and Challenges in Railways," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Singham, Shanker A. & Tylecote, Radomir & Hewson, Victoria, 2018. "Freedom to flourish: UK regulatory autonomy, recognition, and a productive economy," IEA Discussion Papers 91, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    11. Rickard, Séan, 2016. "Ploughing the wrong furrow: The costs of agricultural exceptionalism and the precautionary principle," IEA Discussion Papers 75, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
    12. Hewson, Victoria, 2020. "Rules Britannia: Analysing Britain's regulatory burden," IEA Discussion Papers 100, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Tyrrall, 2004. "The Uk Railway Privatisation : Failing To Succeed?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 32-38, September.
    2. Preston, John & Robins, Dawn, 2013. "Evaluating the long term impacts of transport policy: The case of passenger rail privatisation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 14-20.
    3. Preston, John & Bickel, Charles, 2020. "And the beat goes on. The continued trials and tribulations of passenger rail franchising in Great Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Preston, John, 2018. "The wheels keep on turning: Is the end of rail franchising in Britain in sight?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 187-196.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Preston, John, 2008. "A review of passenger rail franchising in Britain: 1996/1997-2006/2007," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-77, January.
    9. David Tyrrall & David Parker, 2005. "The Fragmentation of a Railway: A Study of Organizational Change," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 507-537, May.
    10. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    11. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2004. "Power, organization design and managerial behaviour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 207-225.
    12. Smith, Julia A. & England, Claire, 2019. "An ethnographic study of culture and performance in the UK lingerie industry," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 241-258.
    13. Pollitt, Michael G., 2012. "The role of policy in energy transitions: Lessons from the energy liberalisation era," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 128-137.
    14. Helen Irvine & Michael Gaffikin, 2006. "Getting in, getting on and getting out: reflections on a qualitative research project," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(1), pages 115-145, January.
    15. Robert Jupe, 2011. "'A Poll Tax on wheels': Might the move to privatise rail in Britain have failed?," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 324-343.
    16. Julien Batac & Olivier de La Villarmois & Christophe Benavent, 2002. "Les Interactions Strategie / Controle : Le Cas D'Une Banque De Detail," Post-Print halshs-00584432, HAL.
    17. Chenhall, Robert H. & Hall, Matthew & Smith, David, 2010. "Social capital and management control systems: A study of a non-government organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 737-756, November.
    18. Anne Riviere & Marie Boitier, 2013. "La Professionnalisation Du Controle De Gestion En Question : Confrontation De Logiques Au Sein D'Une Universite Francaise," Post-Print hal-00996785, HAL.
    19. Hall, Matthew, 2010. "Accounting information and managerial work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28539, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Jonsson, Sten & Macintosh, Norman B., 1997. "CATS, RATS, AND EARS: Making the case for ethnographic accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(3-4), pages 367-386.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:34:y:2014:i:2:p:255-266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-0665 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.