But private companies took up the challenge and laid the lines, dug the tunnels and built the bridges that would conquer the Alps. Ironically enough, once the Swiss realised what an asset the railways were, they nationalised them. A referendum in 1898 approved the creation of the Swiss Federal Railways.5 British Rail wouldn’t be born for another 50 years, only to be abolished within another 50. Britain may have invented the railway, but it doesn’t know how to run one.
