Protesters will picket railway stations across Britain today to mark 20 years since the country's railways were sold off.

PM John Major threw the rail network on the bonfire on November 5 1993, pushing through a Railways Act that thrust British Rail into the hands of greedy privateers.

The private train operating companies are entirely reliant on public subsidies, with the top five receiving almost £3 billion from the Treasury between 2007 and 2011, according to research by the University of Manchester.

Rather than reducing costs, the sell-off has ended up costing the government an extra £1.2 billion a year - drained away through private profits and dividends, fragmented services and higher borrowing costs, think tank Transport for Quality of Life said.

Public subsidies have led to privateers making off with half a billion pounds in profit between 2007 and 2011 - 90 per cent of which disappeared to their shareholders.

In contrast, publicly owned East Coast will have flooded the Treasury's coffers with an extra £800m by the end of the year.

The demonstrations, organised by the TUC's Action for Rail campaign, will demand the railways be nationalised.

Their call is backed up by huge public demand for an end to a system that lets fat cat train companies cream off millions while charging hard-pressed travellers the highest fares in Europe.

Ticket prices have risen nearly three times faster than wages since the 2008 financial crash.

The price of some season tickets has soared by more than £1,000.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Rail privatisation has been a colossal market failure.

"Twenty years on from the Railways Act we have a system of corporate welfare with train companies reliant upon the public purse to turn a profit."

And train drivers' union Aslef leader Mick Whelan pointed out that the Tory mantra of "competition spurs innovation" had fallen on its face.

"Private companies should be about investment and about risk. But there is no investment and there is no risk," he said.

"That's why we think it's time to bring the railway back into public ownership so that, like the East Coast, the railway can deliver a proper service to the public and bring money back to the exchequer."

Transport union RMT said it was ridiculous that Britain's railways had been sold to other countries' nationalised rail companies.

German and Dutch state-run train firms operate sizeable chunks of the British rail service.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "For 20 years the political class, of all parties, has failed the British rail passengers and workforce, while overseas state operators have been allowed to plunder our services to keep costs down on their own turf.

"Rail privatisation has been a catalogue of disgrace."