Of course, there's no evidence that this is thanks to the marketistas. A better economy means more travel and with Britain able to exploit the North Sea oil fields, its economy was booming indeed. This is all gone now.

Are you forgetting the RER?

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Regarding upgrading, upgrades always come in for unexpected costs and new lines much less so. Though tunnels are another matter. Signaling is the one thing I'd expect to not get cost overruns, assuming it's been tested so I don't quite understand that.

Switzerland is of course a special case for many reasons. Including that as a transit country, they must prioritize freight.

The disinvestment in SNCF and the appeal of seperating infrastructure from operation is easy to understand given SNCF's SNAFU mode of operation. Especially if the intent is to stop SNCF from hiding its operating losses in infrastructure payments.

Even open competition is easy to understand if it results in separate passenger and freight businesses with more investment into modern freight terminals.

Do we know what Sweden's infrastructure investment rate has been per capita? France's hasn't been too good since the 90s. And Netherlands is just finishing that hugely expensive line.

Also, despite open access being EU policy, I heard an EU directive on it hadn't progressed past first reading because it would violate constitutional protections in France on free administration of communes. I can't quite recall what made it into French law due to the EU.