[birn559]

"private *" also ends in failure quite often. The German train system started to fail when it was partially privatized.

In general, governments tend to not be able to run a system efficiently, but reliably and robust while for companies it's the opposite.

[qcnguy]

The German train system isn't privatized in any meaningful way, I don't think any European rail system is. They all have harsh price controls imposed by the government and are unionized, which are classically problems affecting government run services to a much greater extent than normal private sector companies.