It always amazes me that the UK, which gave the world the railways, has made such a howling mess of them. It was the British who laid out the basis for the Swiss railway system in the min-19th century, and this has developed into one of the world's best systems, in fact, as one commentator described it, Switzerland in reality is one giant train set, in which succeeding generations of fathers and sons have added new rolling stock and track.
The Swiss recognise the railway as a valuable public service and are prepared to spend serious money to make sure that they all work well and have the latest equipment. Something like 50% of Switzerland's railway mileage is in private hands, but the federal and cantonal governments are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and help out with major projects. One recent example is the second Albula Tunnel. The Rhätische Bahn in canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland is the second biggest railway network after the federal SBB and its century-old Albula Tunnel en route to St. Moritz was becoming dangerous. The solution? Bore another one alongside it and once that is in operation repair the old one. The technical problems were immense - it including freezing the strata through which water was coming but it is nearly complete:
Die aktuellsten Informationen rund um den Neubau des Albulatunnels für Sie zusammengefasst.
www.rhb.ch
The Swiss can make this mixed public/private system work very well, so why not the UK? It always seems to come down to penny-pinching. I remember when high-speed railways became an issue.
The UK tried to do it with the APT, running on normal track, and we all know what happened to that. On the other side of La Manche, the SNCF jumped in, boots and all, and built a custom track for exclusively high-speed trains. We know whose approach worked.