This authorative volume assesses the origins and impact of the privatisation of the British railway industry.

Sean McCartney is Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Business History at Queen Mary, University of London. His research interests are mainly historical and have focused on two areas: (i) aspects of British industrial performance between the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the First World War, particularly the railway and canal sectors. His most recent paper (in Business History) is on the 'Railway Mania' of 1845-7; (ii) the performance of the rail industry in Britain since privatisation in the mid-1990s, in collaboration with John Stittle. The resulting papers form the basis of this book.

John Stittle was formerly a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at the University of Essex. He has authored a number of successful books on topics such as corporate reporting for non-accountants, financial reporting, and on improving the quality of annual corporate reports. In addition, he has written widely on financial and business issues in both academic and professional journals. In particular, he has written extensively on the privatised railway industry, which forms his main research interest. He is currently accounting columnist for Governance and Compliance, the journal of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Chapter 1: A Privatisation too Far.

Chapter 2: 'Engines of Extravagance': The privatised British railway rolling stock industry.

Chapter 3: 'Taken for a Ride': The privatisation of the British railway rolling stock industry.

Chapter 4: 'Carry on up the East Coast'- A case study in railway franchising.

Chapter: 5: 'A Very Costly Industry': The cost of Britain's privatised railway.

Chapter 6: Accounting for UK rail freight track charges: privatisation, politics and the pursuit of private sector vested interests.

Chapter 7: The 'success story' of rail privatisation in Britain: Public policy and the rail freight industry.

Chapter 8: 'Not our problem': UK Government's fiscal obligations towards the privatised railway network.

Chapter 9: Accounting for Producer Needs: The case of Britain's rail infrastructure.