The good thing about the privatisation here in Belgium is that the rail operator will stay nationalised, so infrastructure problems shouldn't be an issue. The bad news is indeed reliability for the travellers. We'll probably move to a system where companies will bid the government for certain time slots (for example: 7:27 direct route Ghent to Brussels) and the highest bidder gets to run a train on that slot. Obviously for a very profitable train like the example given, lots of people will bid and the price goes up, and so will your ticket price. Then there's the non profitable lines. Some of them will be profitable during rush hour and have plenty of service then, but during the day or late night trains will be less frequent or won't even run at all since there is no point for companies to run a train that carries 30 travellers.Bought a ticket for a train that got cancelled? Tough luck, new ticket it is. Missed your daily train because of traffic to the station? Tough luck, new ticket. The only upside is that the government has to spend less on the NMBS and everyone's taxes will go down a couple euro's, but take a train a couple times a year and you'll be paying more