As someone who loves riding the trains through Europe, this is *terrible* news. Privatizing the railways will get rid of all the things that make train travel great and bring in all of the bad aspects of air travel. Say good bye to one simple system for checking schedules and buying tickets. No more holding a train for connecting passengers when another is running late (how will DB know that there are passengers on the late Trains R Us train that need to connect?). Say good bye to being able to buy tickets at one kiosk or counter at one train station and hop on to the train you've gotten used to seeing at the platform.

Say hello to delays with multiple rail carriers (including the inevitable and unscrupulous low cost carriers) all claiming to use the same rails or pushing their trains too close together. Say hello to ridiculous pricing schemes and add-on fees with no clear way to compare prices and routes. Say hello to a ton of headaches and (maybe) slightly lower fares, at least until people forget about how it used to be and the fares climb back up.

I can't wait until many of these companies merge together and we go back to the same number of operators with the same domains that there are now. Great idea.

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