The period from 1995 covers the history of rail transport in Great Britain following the privatisation of British Rail. During this period, passenger volumes have grown rapidly, safety has improved, and subsidies per journey have fallen, although there is debate as to whether this is due to privatisation or to better government regulation. During this period, High Speed 1, the West Coast Main Line upgrade and Crossrail were completed and more construction projects are currently under way. The period also saw the demise of privately owned Railtrack and its replacement with government-owned Network Rail.

Overall rail subsidies have risen, as shown in the graph, although spend per journey has decreased. Rail subsidies have increased from £billion in 1992–93 to £billion in 2015–16 (in current prices), but subsidy per journey has fallen from £ to £. However, this masks great regional variation: for instance, in 2014–15 funding varied from "£1.41 per passenger journey in England to £6.51 per journey in Scotland and £8.34 per journey in Wales."

Due to the increase in passenger numbers and the prospect of high speed rail both within Great Britain and connecting to Europe, this period has been called the start of a new Golden Age of rail travel. Rapidly increasing passenger numbers have meant many trains (as many as 1 in 6 in some places) are crowded at peak times. Peak-time fares have increased by over 200% (since privatisation) to deter people from travelling at these times,Have train fares gone up or down since British Rail? , BBC News, 22 January 2013 whereas the price of advance tickets has halved in the same period. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a large drop in passenger numbers.

Government policy Changes under the Labour government (1997–2010)

The Labour government (elected in 1997 after the majority of the privatisation process had been completed) did not completely reverse the railway privatisation of the previous administration. Initially it left the new structure largely in place, and its main innovation in the early years was the creation of the Strategic Rail Authority, at first in shadow form until the Transport Act 2000 received royal assent, as well as the appointment of Tom Winsor as Rail Regulator, who took a much harder line with the rail industry, and Railtrack in particular.

In the wake of the Hatfield rail crash in 2000, Railtrack entered into financial meltdown and the industry was in deep crisis. Labour refused to continue to bail out Railtrack and the company was put into Railway Administration in 2001 before a new company, Network Rail, emerged to replace it in 2002. Since September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "government body".ONS decision on the classification of Network Rail Department for Transport 17 December 2013

The Strategic Rail Authority lasted five years. Following the passing of the Railways Act 2005, its business was wound up and its functions transferred to the Department for Transport Rail Group and the Office of Rail Regulation. Further changes followed, which saw the government take back a greater degree of control.

Another important development occurred in the aftermath of the Potters Bar accident in May 2002 when a commuter train derailed (coincidentally on the same stretch of the East Coast Main Line as Hatfield) due to poorly maintained points. This resulted in Network Rail taking all track maintenance back in-house, and the industry went on to achieve the longest period in modern times without a fatal accident due to industry error. This came to an end in February 2007 when a Virgin Trains West Coast Class 390 Pendolino derailed near Grayrigg in Cumbria, killing one person. The cause of the accident was identical to that in Potters Bar nearly five years earlier, again calling into question Network Rail's maintenance procedures.

In 2006, the government launched the Access for All programme to improve accessibility at railway stations in Great Britain. The £390million main programme (extended in 2014 with a further £163million) delivered accessibility projects at more than 150 stations.

In 2007, the government's preferred option was to use diesel trains running on biodiesel, its White Paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway, ruling out large-scale railway electrification in Great Britain for the following five years.

Following Gordon Brown's appointment as prime minister in 2007, Andrew Adonis was appointed Transport Secretary. He immediately began work on plans for a new high-speed route between London and Birmingham (later known as High Speed 2), which would augment the West Coast Main Line. Adonis also announced plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line from London as far as Swansea, as well as infill electrification schemes in the North West of England to remove diesel traction from certain key routes. Late in 2009, the InterCity East Coast franchise collapsed for the second time in three years when incumbent operator National Express East Coast proved unable to meet its financial obligations. Adonis transferred the franchise to the state-owned Directly Operated Railways to operate the route under its East Coast subsidiary.

In February 2009, the Department for Transport set up a company called Diesel Trains Ltd with the intention of funding and managing the procurement of up to 200 diesel multiple unit vehicles as part of the government's planned purchase of as many as 1300 new rail vehicles. It was incorporated following the announcement of the first 200 vehicles in late 2008 as part of the Pre-Budget Report. The speed of this announcement (the final contract to be signed in April 2009) led the government to take the lead in financing the procurement, through a public company. However, the DfT stated that it did not intend to serve in the long-term as a lessor of rolling stock. As a consequence, the DfT planned to sell Diesel Trains Ltd once the procurement process was completed, either as a whole, or by selling its assets and contracts.DfT - Purchase of 202 Diesel Multiple Unit Vehicles - 5 March 2009

Diesel Trains Ltd was to have responsibility for the purchase and distribution of 202 DMU vehicles to three TOCs – First Great Western, First TransPennine Express and Northern Rail. The order itself was to encompass a total of 61 trains, with 19 four-car and 42 three-car. Following the announcement in August 2009 that the Great Western Main Line was to be electrified, the order for 202 DMUs was cancelled. After lying dormant for three years, Diesel Trains Ltd was dissolved in July 2012.Companies House - Diesel Trains Limited

Changes under the Coalition government (2010–2015)

After the 2010 General Election, the new Conservative-led coalition continued Labour's rail policies largely unaltered after a pause to review the finances. There was continuing support for the High Speed 2 scheme and further developing plans for the route, although the scheme's benefits and costs were debated. Whilst initially showing scepticism towards the electrification schemes of the Great Western route, they later gave the project its backing and work began formally in 2012.

In July 2012, the government published a £9.4billion High Level Output Specification for the 2014–2019 period, which included £4.2billion of new schemes. This included the Electric Spine project to electrify the railway between Southampton in the south and Nuneaton and Sheffield in the north, electrification of the Midland Main Line from Bedford to Sheffield, Cardiff–Swansea and Valley Lines electrification, and the Western Rail Approach to Heathrow. The Electric Spine, Midland Main Line electrification and Cardiff–Swansea electrification were later scrapped in July 2017. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Rail Approach to Heathrow was shelved in January 2021.

In 2012, the franchising system again came under criticism after FirstGroup was awarded the InterCity West Coast franchise. Incumbent Virgin Rail Group initiated a judicial review against the decision, citing the fact that First's bid was more ambitious than the one which had scuttled National Express East Coast less than three years earlier. Before the review took place, newly installed Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin scrapped the entire bidding process for the franchise and granted Virgin an extension to its contract when "severe technical flaws" were discovered in the original bidding competition.

The Conservative government (2015–2024)

The government moved towards allowing more competition on the intercity network through open access operators. In 2015 it approved a service run by Alliance Rail Holdings to operate between London Euston and Blackpool, and in 2016 it allowed FirstGroup to run open access services on the East Coast Main Line from October 2021 under the operating name Lumo.

Fare increases The government pledged in August 2015 to keep regulated rail fare increases at Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation for the remainder of the 2015 Parliament. In addition, debate continued over the financing of various rail schemes driven primarily by the huge cost and time overrun on the GWML route modernisation and electrification scheme. In connection with this, and to coincide with the Chancellor's Autumn statement in November 2015, the Bowe and Hendy reports were produced.

2016–2019 rail strikes

From April 2016, the British railway network was severely disrupted on many occasions by wide-reaching rail strikes, affecting rail franchises across the country. The industrial action began on Southern services as a dispute over the planned introduction of driver-only operation, and expanded to cover many different issues affecting the rail industry.

Cost of living crisis and the 2022–2024 rail strikes

Due to the cost-of-living crisis, RMT union members at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies voted in favour of strike action on 24 May 2022. It was the first national strike at Network Rail since 1994. On 11 July 2022, ASLEF union members at eight train operating companies and TSSA members at Southeastern also voted in favour of strike action. RMT members voted to accept a pay deal with Network Rail in March 2023 and the industrial action in Scotland and Wales ended in May 2023, while the RMT dispute with the Rail Delivery Group is ongoing as of September 2023.

As a response to the cost-of-living crisis, the government approved a 5.9% rise in rail fares from 5 March 2023, which was 6.4 percentage points below the RPI inflation rate in July 2022 which is normally used to calculate fare increases.

In July 2023, the government announced plans to close the majority of ticket offices. The plan was abandoned in October 2023.Customer Foccused Stations Rail Delivery GroupPlans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped BBC News 1 November 2023

Infrastructure projects In March 2016, the National Infrastructure Commission said that Crossrail 2 should be taken forward "as a priority" and recommended that a bill should pass through Parliament by 2019 and the line should be open by 2033. Crossrail 2 is a north–south railway through London, similar to the east–west railway Crossrail which is currently under construction.

In July 2017, Chris Grayling, the secretary of state for transport announced a number of electrification schemes were to be suspended indefinitely citing the disruptive nature of electrification works and the availability of bi-mode technology. The schemes included aspects of the GWML including Cardiff to Swansea, the Midland Main Line from Kettering to Sheffield via Derby and Nottingham and Oxenholme to Windermere in the Lake District.

In February 2018, the five-year plan was published by Network Rail with significant investment though much of this was for renewals and smaller projects rather than major projects. In March 2019 the Railway Industry Association published a paper entitled Electrification Cost Challenge.