I can tell you from experience the trains in the UK are expensive and miserable.
The common theory for why is because of the mess made of privatising British Rail in the 1990s. The government did it in a way which managed to create monopolies while at the same time splitting out responsibility between different companies in such a way that millions are drained away on legal costs while the companies argue with each other about who is responsible for each problem.
The common theory for why is because of the mess made of privatising British Rail in the 1990s. The government did it in a way which managed to create monopolies while at the same time splitting out responsibility between different companies in such a way that millions are drained away on legal costs while the companies argue with each other about who is responsible for each problem.
There are many articles analysing the problems you can find online, here's one that turned up at the top of search: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/07/railways-pri... Edit: Better article: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/09/why-britains-...