Railway privatization, default risk, and the right to expand

The state may have to intervene when a railway operator defaults because allowing the service to collapse offers little practical choice. That does not necessarily make all commercial risk publicly owned, since government can seek to recover its money. A later criticism of Britain's franchise system links the right to build additional lines with responsibility for both risk and reward. In this view, privatization should give companies the freedom to expand and make them bear the consequences of their choices. The franchise arrangement falls short of that model.