Privatisation may be on its knees, but ministers can make a mess of the railways too | Simon Jenkins

Whoever owns the rail companies, they work best when they are under one management with no meddling

The collapse this week of Southeastern trains and the investigation of its accounts by the Serious Fraud Office signals the death knell of rail privatisation, after a quarter century of ideological turmoil, political interference and waste. Passengers have surged, until now. Trains have run, some of them on time. Subsidies have trebled in real terms. But the model is a shambles. Railways north, sou...