[cnorthwood]

Many private rail operators in the UK have been allowed to collapse, UK gov has set up "operators of last resort" which are run by the government to take over services when that happens. Pre-pandemic, the East Coast Mainline and Northern operations were run by them after the private operators walked away on the verge of collapsing

[mnd999]

Precisely, they were bailed out at the government’s expense. The trains are still running.