Rail is typically never profitable unless the increase in land value around stations is captured. In the UK they typically leave those spoils to private land owners.
Japanese rail companies manage this: they run the trains at cost - or even a loss - and make profits back from (for example), building malls around the stations and leasing space to retailers.
The UK could really use high speed rail around the London commuter belt. If land value increases are captured it would probably pay for itself, in fact.
Road-building is also not profitable unless you capture the increase in land value around roads. Curiously, most people are okay with tax-funded roads and streets but strongly oppose spending public funds on trains.
Of course, ideally both would be run exactly at cost via user fees (i.e. train tickets, tolls etc.), but this is not an often-shared opinion.
>Curiously, most people are okay with tax-funded roads and streets but strongly oppose spending public funds on trains.
Actually the public is strongly in favor of spending public funds on trains, but the British oligarchy (reflected by the media's default opinion - which some people confuse for the public's), is vehemently against it:
Note the Telegraph accusing the general public of being communists:
"the majority of the electorate who have no love for bankers and are positively Trotskyist when it comes to trains and utilities"
"A recent YouGov poll showed that the majority of people support the renationalisation of railways, including those who identified themselves as Conservative or UKIP voters."
>Of course, ideally both would be run exactly at cost via user fees
Why are you against capturing the increased land value like Japan does?
It's quite rare to see people advocating high-speed rail for such short journeys as typical London commuter belt. Could you elaborate how you see this working? Remember you're accelerating 1000 tonnes of steel to 200mph at each station you need to stop at.
Actually I have a coworker who commutes on HSR1 from Ashford meaning he lives closer to France than he does to the office and he still has a less painful commute than half of my coworkers.
Building high speed rail in London would alleviate a lot of commuter stress and pain and it could be used to regenerate a lot of the more run down areas on the outskirts of London if they suddenly had a ~12-15 minute commute to the center.
Japanese rail companies manage this: they run the trains at cost - or even a loss - and make profits back from (for example), building malls around the stations and leasing space to retailers.
The UK could really use high speed rail around the London commuter belt. If land value increases are captured it would probably pay for itself, in fact.