And one of the worst ironies is that some of our franchises are run by the state rail companies of other countries. Meaning we are subsidising rail travel in foreign countries.
Indeed, we do have a lot of state owned rail in the UK, just not UK state owned. I believe at one point even a majority of the franchises were held either by companies either wholly or partially owned by foreign state owned rail companies. Fewer now, but still.
You guys should hold a referendum to see if you could break off relations with those other countries, so you don't have to subsidize them any longer!