International Business Review 13 (2004) 181–214 www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev The future of the UK railway system: Michael Brooke’s vision Mark Casson à Department of Economics, University of Reading, PO Box 218, Reading RG6 6AA, UK Abstract The UK rail system has been the subject of a bold ideological experiment in privatisation, which has failed. Public subsidy has more than tripled in ten years, new electric trains are in storage because there is insufficient power to run them, and punctuality and reliability have declined to amongst the lowest levels in Europe. The paper analyses the fundamental causes of failure. Its goes beyond the well-known problems caused by separating infrastructure and operation to analyse a wide range of perverse incentives caused by the fragmentation of ownership. It advocates a return to command and control (currently in progress), an inte- grated programme for the enhancement of the network, and radical changes to the recruit- ment and training of managers. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Railway; Transport; Organisation; Policy 1. Introduction Organisational complexity is a key issue in international business. It is also a key issue in the railway industry. Michael Brooke made an important and distinctive contribution to the analysis of organisational structure, as the other papers in this special issue show. Through his involvement in local politics, Michael had acquired a deep understanding of transport issues, which he shared with other members of his family. It is therefore no surprise that Michael Brooke chose the railway indus- try as the subject of his final research project. In this work, he applied the general principles of organisational behaviour to the rail industry. à Tel.: +44-1189-318227. E-mail address: m.c.casson@reading.ac.uk (M. Casson). 0969-5931/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ibusrev.2003.10.002