Isn't everyone missing the point that the national rail network, upon which millions depend to carry out their daily lives and upon which industry depend to deliver the goods to keep the economy going, is far too important to be left to "market forces". Even the shambolic way the industry has been "privatised" shows how the "market" doesn't apply to railways. It's impossible to have true competition, because there are a limited number of paths available on each line at any given time. If market forces were allowed to apply, then any TOC should be allowed to run any train they want at any time they and their shareholders decide it would be most profitable to do so.
Passengers would have the "choice" of a bargain basement offering of a Pacer from "Lidl-rail" or a Pendolino from "Harrods-rail". Cheap and not so cheerful, or 5-star luxury at a premium price. The minute DfT starts meddling in who can run trains, to where and when through the franchise (or management contract) system, market forces disappear and any of the supposed benefits of the free market disappear. But even then, the trains can't occupy the same track at the same time, so there's no real choice.
The current system isn't privatised, its a series of mini-monopolies presided over by bureaucrats with no incentive to improve things for passengers, only to keep as much of the "cost" of running the railway off the Government's public balance sheet as possible. For someone like Grayling and his ilk to whine that it's not their fault the railway is failing but that it's down to lack of investment is tantamount to them visiting every commuter who has had their lives ruined over the past months by the Northern Rail and Thameslink timetable fiasco and punching them square in the face. These are the same passengers who are faced not only with paying higher fares for a worse service, but also having to pay their taxes as well to fund the rest of the railway and the salaries of the idiots who are continually failing to deliver an adequate service.