Ceding control of the track and infrastructure to Railtrack, the Government distributed franchises for train services to several new companies and handed over the rolling stock to three “Roscos” controlled by banks.

Little changed for passengers already inured to endless delays, but the privatised rail system steadily lost credibility as eight fatal accidents claimed the lives of dozens of passengers.

The crash at Hatfield in 2000, which killed four people, exposed the poor state of the network and industry-wide confusion over responsibility for track maintenance.

Emergency repairs across the country led to severe disruption as more than 1,000 speed restrictions were introduced, causing as many as one train in five to run late.

The problems prompted a wave of criticism from consumer groups that privatisation had only allowed companies to reap profits at the expense of safety.

Gerald Corbett, Railtrack’s chief executive, resigned in the wake of the accident, claiming that the privatisation had not been “designed to optimise safety, optimise investment or cope with the huge increase in passengers”.

The events prompted a regulator to diagnose the system as suffering a “nervous breakdown” and eventually caused the demise of Railtrack, which was replaced by Network Rail in 2002.

This week, Network Rail reported a profit of £747 million as trade unions and passenger groups reiterated previous complaints about punctuality.