Can anyone name a nationalised European railway (of the scale of the UK) to use as a forward template for the UK?
I don't think any of them are particularly successful, and they are all deep in debt.
Most have a strict demarcation between long-distance and regional/local services, often under separate funding and control.
Strikes are common, notably in Germany and France.
They do all have big investment in high speed lines, and/or in new Alpine base tunnels.
Stock is generally leased, and no railway builds its own stock.
Generally they tender services periodically, often taken on by other public rail operators (some being cross-border eg RATP in Germany).
There's some private freight and open access operation, including state railways operating competitively in other countries (eg SNCF in Spain).
Switzerland is often offered as an example to follow, but structurally it is a complex mix of ownership and operation, some of it semi-private.
Germany is slipping down the league tables of reliability and maintenance backlog.
France is trying to restructure and change terms and conditions (pensions etc) with much opposition.
Maybe Belgium has it nearest right, but its scale is a lot less than the UK.