The railroads of Europe (train, people, pay, German)
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Are any railroads in Europe privately owned or are they all government owned?
The tracks and a lot of the infrastructure are usually Government owned but train companies than run on the tracks are mainly private in the UK and pay to use the tracks and infrastructure.
Companies such as DB Rail Freight, GB Freightline, Freightliner Group etc run freight services in the UK including European Freight Trains and International Services.
In the United States, our railroads run long, heavy, and fast freights.
It is the European forum and your post is about Euope. People don't care about what is like "in the United States". Plus we all know it is stuck in the 1970s so who cares?
It is the European forum and your post is about Euope. People don't care about what is like "in the United States". Plus we all know it is stuck in the 1970s so who cares?
Man, you are one bitter person. Your anti-Americanism is pathological. Look up "monomania".
OP - as pointed out Switzerland has many private railroads, but that's down to physical isolation of the systems - some only run up one or two valleys.
Man, you are one bitter person. Your anti-Americanism is pathological. Look up "monomania".
OP - as pointed out Switzerland has many private railroads, but that's down to physical isolation of the systems - some only run up one or two valleys.
people don't care "here in the US, blah blah". So stop talking as if it were an interesting topic.
While 1.) is usually government owned, with several exceptions also exist especially isolated heavy cargo rail for coal mining, smaller narrow gauge rails these days 2.) is heavily pushed into the private sector.
While the main operators such as DB, NS Rail, SBB, SNCF, CD, PKC, ÖBB are governnment owned, there are hundreds of companies that are operating on behalf of those companies, in competition to those companies, or hired by the local governments to provide rail service. In Germany usually - except long distance train services - the local governments will select a rail provider via tendering for certain sectors and services. Government owned companies such as DB can apply, but also private companies can do so.
In Italy:
1) rail tracks are owned and operated by the state-owned RFI company;
2) high-speed rail routes are operated by two competing companies: the state-owned Trenitalia and the private Italotreno;
3) local (regional) rail routes are operated mostly by that same state-owned Trenitalia, though there are a number of smaller companies running on specific local routes which can be state-owned, private, or a combination of the two;
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