In the UK the railways used to be kind of bad in the nationalised British Rail days. People moan about the current privatised rail but it mostly works.
Who knows if it was better in the nationalised days, but it sure needs some unification and central governance without a profit motive today.
I do. I was there. It wasn't.
I was around but not a heavy rail user in the nationalised days though the stories back then were quite reminiscent of the current DB stories.