This paper compares three European countries with long experience of competition in rail transport— Britain, Sweden, and Germany. Given the nature of the reforms undertaken, we would expect theBritish approach to be the most successful, with Sweden next and Germany least successful. But anexamination of subsidy levels and trends in passenger and freight traffic finds that Germany has theslowest growth in public financial support for its railway, as well as the lowest increase in fares. Whiletraffic growth is faster in the other countries, it is not clear that reforms there have provided bettervalue for money.