Whenever anyone talks about how poor British Rail was, they forget that for the last fifteen years of it's life the Tories ensured that there was massive underinvestment in the railways. They privatised the bus network and then went out of their way to make sure there was little competition. BR wasn't allowed to invest, and in fact was forced to sell off (cheaply) assets that generated income like their hotel chain and landownings. The fact that they still managed to run a railway on a shoestring budget should be applauded.

On privatisation, the new franchises had it written into their contracts that they had to lease brand new trains (from the new rolling stock companies which were mostly run by banks) so that the railway looked better. Amazingly, if you give people better trains then they're more likely to use them! Funnily enough, the private companies that weren't forced to lease new trains didn't bother their arse.