Yes, the Big Four railway companies from 1st January 1923 did produce profits, some more than others, but they did
The industry as a whole has NEVER made a profit. Beeching had the right idea, unprofitable lines should be shut. Only he was too much of a pussy, and only did a half arsed job.
As for running a normal commercial business without profit? : No, of course not. But the railways must be viewed as an essential public service that keeps the country moving and tens of thousands of businesses able to operate and be profitable, as well as here in the UK, not abroad. Can you imagine our big cities not being fed by the railway lines bringing in workers and goods? The simple answer is, if they did not, the commercial centres of those cities will collapse.
I get a feeling you don't actually use trains? Their primary purpose is to get people who don't want to live in the shitholes they create into the shitholes they create for work.
Now electricity, water and arguably in this day and age, Internet are essential services. Not *any* form of transport.
That is a sweeping general statement. I have spent years of studying the history of the railways, but regretfully nowadays I have not got to hand the exact facts and figures relating to the accounts of the Big Four, especially for the 1930's
so I will summarize accordingly -
It is, and always was a very complicated picture across the industry, with the -
GWR - was always the most profitable throughout it's history
SR - which was profitable, but lacked the advantage of heavy freight handing
LMS - often struggling to maintain profitability as it's freight business declined significantly during the years of the depression
LNER - Suffered extremely badly, with loss of profitability, from 1929 with a major decline in their freight business, which included the movement of coad and steel.
It must not be forgotten though that these companies operated more than just trains. They were a major operator of:
Hotels
Railway Air Services
Household removals, the largest in the country
Road transport, with the largest fleet in the country, including 15,000+ road passenger vehicles and 9,000 non-passenger vehicles
Ships and Ferries
Docks and Harbour facilities
Plus, the owners of 51,000 houses
112,000 workshops
Their empires were all encompassing, with the GWR in particular also producing many household items, fixtures and fittings in their workshops - indeed everything a family, especially those working for the company, living in their operating region required.
As I touched on before, the Great War and the Second World War severely damaged the railways in terms of extreme wear & tear, caused by massive increases in train movements, with locomotives in particular being left badly worn out. All this was never recompensed, so no benefit was seen in the accounts of the railway companies, compounded by the fact that all the massive increases in costs, that severely damaged profits, was never compensated for. Especially after WW2 the Big Four were left broke, giving the government of the day the opportunity of Nationalising all of them.
As for me using trains; well not now, but on business I often had to when travelling into London and I loved them! They were, in the 1970's to 1990's, so much better than those trains I frequently was on travelling with my parents in the 1950's and early 1960's! Especially the Intercity 125's out of Bristol were a pleasure to use
But the infrastructure was out of date then, urgently requiring the massive investment that is at last taken place in the 21st century!
Sorry TB, but the age of the motor car is over; the new age of the train is just beginning!