Although it was the Conservative government that instigated the privatisation of British Rail, privatisation didn’t come into effect until November 2007 which means that Blair could have stopped it. The abolition of the British Railways Board by the Transport Act of 2000 was the final coffin in the nail for British Rail and swept away its last vestiges of influence. By 2006, not only had rail passengers suffered continuous increases in rail fare, but the amount of subsidies handed over by government to the train operating companies (for basically doing the same job as British Rail) amounted to three times the annual subsidy that British Rail had received -- for an example, the Economic & Social Reseach Council claim that Stagecoach, which successfully bid for South West Trains, the first franchise, is being paid £27m per year more in subsidy than the amount required to give a reasonable rate of return. (see http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/about/CI/CP/the_edge/Issue1/railsubsidies.aspx?ComponentId=1905&SourcePageId=6805
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