A completely nationalized Services is in my opinion not a good idea, as well as the opposite , a completely privatized Service, is mostly disastrous.
The Problem with a publicly owned model ( I'm talking about rail here) is is that i tends to s prevent any competition and has no need to be efficient.
The same goes for a completely privatized model (if its includes the Infrastructure), it tends automatically to suppress competition (like every monopole). Even if there a dozen+ Companies on their Part of the network they are a monopole.
For me the ideal solution would be a model where the infrastructure (Tracks, Land, Stations, Signals) is publicly owned and properly maintained. The operations (rolling stocks, Service) can be privately operated. As long as there is no monopole in parts of the country and an equal access for competition is granted to the same conditions.
I think this would be an ideal model. Because i see infrastructure like train tracks and stations as vital part of the modern society (public life, economy) and for that reason also as big part of national security.
And to Ireland - i live in Dublin since a good while and the thought that the quality of the service could go further down through a privatization is outright scary.
Well then, according to this theory there must be some scale factor that determines which cases can be successfully run as public enterprises. Colorado Springs, bastion of "free enterprise," has city-owned bus, water, sewer, electriciy, and gas utilities. The only competition is with other cities, but to take advantage of this competition the customer has to move. Our utilities are efficient for the most part, although there are some (serious) problems related to the sewer system capacity. However, there is no call to change this situation.
So, somewhere between city-scale and national-scale enterprises, things fall apart. Or, perhaps, the perception is that they fall apart. Is European nationalized health care worse than American private health care? Is European rail freight comparable to the American private system?
I think there are other factors at work here...
For me the ideal solution would be a model where the infrastructure (Tracks, Land, Stations, Signals) is publicly owned and properly maintained. The operations (rolling stocks, Service) can be privately operated. As long as there is no monopole in parts of the country and an equal access for competition is granted to the same conditions. I think this would be an ideal model.
I think this would be an ideal model.
I could not agree more.
But until 2001 the legal framework enabling the creation of a true partnership between a Cooperative of Utility Users and a Cooperative of Utility Service providers did not exist.
Now it does, and it is IMHO possible to envisage a utility like the railways being run on a "Not for Loss" basis (there is no profit and no loss within a partnership), with any necessary capital coming from units of revenues "sold forward" without selling any measure of ownership or control.
