ABSTRACT
The British Airports Authority exercises considerable monopoly power through its ownership of the London airports and was privatised in that form. There are no plans to bring about the comprehensive privatisation of the core activities of British Rail (BR). This is partly because rail services depend upon substantial levels of government subsidy which make it difficult to create genuine situations of risk for a private sector operator, independent of government guarantees and controls. Railway networks are by their nature interdependent and it is therefore difficult to single out individual lines and services for privatisation. BR has considered several proposals in the past such as the Slough-Windsor and Southend-Frenchurch Street lines but no acceptable formula for privatisation was found which offered efficiency gains. The Transport Act 1985 deregulated the bus industry and, outside London, bus operators are free to run services wherever they wish subject to prior notification and certain safety requirements.
