On Sunday I was the guest speaker at the Cambridge University Conservative Association’s gin and tonic party. I spoke defending the privatisation of rail by the last Conservative administration, pointing out that, on all major measures, the railways have improved, whether you look at passenger numbers, punctuality, investment levels or safety. I pointed to the innovation of new “open access” operators like Grand Central, which run in competition with franchisees.

Because Grand Central operates in competition with National Express East Coast, it is innovative, for example embedding board games like Monopoly and chess into table-tops. It is happy for passengers pay for their tickets onboard trains, including if they want discounted fares, rather than treating them as criminals which seems to be the practice of the franchised InterCity operators (who themselves have made significant improvements since privatisation). Furthermore, if a passenger is forced to stand, he or she is given a 50% refund.

But there is still much more competition that needs to be introduced. Later this month, Wrexham & Shropshire will launch a new service competiting against Virgin Trains and Arriva Trains Wales. But such ventures are hindered by the lack of enthusiasm by government. British Rail removed a lot of capacity from the rail, and Network Rail has cut the available ”paths” to suit its own convenience, completely failing to understand that with rising passenger numbers, we need more capacity, not less.

One thing Network Rail ought to be doing is to construct more overtaking loops which would make it easier for greater numbers of long-distance trains to share track with commuter ones. There is also a golden opportunity for more competition thanks to the spare capacity at Waterloo now that Eurostar has moved to St Pancras.

Thankfully, Renaissance Trains, which was behind the creation of the Hull Trains open access service (now run by First Group) and is behind Wrexham & Shropshire, is looking at further new competiting services, including one between Glasgow and Liverpool/Nottingham and one between the Humber Coast, Lincoln, Cambridge and London.

Competition, I pointed out, has already brought improvements and will increasingly do so. The model of vertical separation between track and trains is vital to enable it to thrive.

The best bit of the evening was walking into an unrelated after-party and hearing one of my arguments being propagated. Mission successful. It was a good party, too.