MANY issues divide Britain’s right- and left-leaning newspapers, but hacks across the political spectrum seem united in their fury at the idea of foreign state-owned firms running trains in Britain. “British taxpayers are subsidising European train fares,” roars the left-wing Daily Mirror. “The great train robbery,” echoes the right-wing Daily Express. Yet increasingly, foreign rail firms face opposition to their British operations at home, too.

The decision on May 16th by Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, to renationalise rail services on the East Coast mainline highlighted how few of Britain’s trains are these days run by domestic companies. Mr Grayling pulled the plug on the franchise after Stagecoach and Virgin, the two British firms that ran it, made heavy losses. Two-thirds of Britain’s train franchises are now owned or part-owned by state-run railways from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Even the queen’s private train is run by Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state rail firm.

Their role irks some British taxpayers, who subsidise the rail network to the tune of £4.2bn ($5.6bn) a year. Fares have risen by 45% in real terms since privatisation in the 1990s, causing many passengers to accuse the firms of taking them for a ride. Punctuality has reached a ten-year low and overcrowding has risen by a third since 2011. The fact that foreigners are profiting from all this makes the situation even more intolerable.

When the government separated the operation of trains and track in the 1990s, most services were run by British firms. But foreign rail giants soon piled in, explains Gerald Khoo of Liberum, a bank. Profits were good, as many first-time franchises had been let on favourable terms. Passenger numbers rose faster than expected. And state rail firms in Europe looked to Britain to diversify in the face of new European laws that forced them to open their tracks at home to competitors.

Yet many have found that Britain’s tracks are not paved with gold. Deutsche Bahn bought Arriva, a big British franchise-holder, in 2010. It has won only two new bids since then, and lost many more. One of its franchises, Northern, has been hit hard by strikes. And it pulled out of bidding for the renewal of its Welsh franchise, which was awarded to a rival consortium on May 23rd.

Abellio, a subsidiary of the Dutch state rail firm, NS, has also been suffering. It has won more new contracts than Deutsche Bahn, but they are not very lucrative. It lost money on its Scotrail franchise last year and required a £10m bail-out by its parent. Passenger numbers have also disappointed on its Greater Anglia franchise. NS worries about being on the hook if Abellio’s franchises go wrong, just as Virgin and Stagecoach had to pay nearly £200m to walk away from the East Coast mainline.

So both are under pressure at home for their antics abroad. Abellio has come under fire from Dutch politicians over what one described as its “foreign adventures”, and for being fined €41m ($48m) last year for breaking competition law relating to a line between the Netherlands and Belgium. NS’s new bosses want to refocus the group on its Dutch operations. In 2016 Deutsche Bahn tried to sell off Arriva. When that failed, Deutsche Bahn was criticised in the German press after it received a government bail-out worth €2.4bn, in part to fund its foreign activities.

If either firm stops bidding for future contracts in Britain, it could leave the government in a pickle. It fears being left hostage to a single bidder for many franchises. So ministers are trying to broaden the field of competitors. They are already offering to share more of the revenue risk on new franchises, to make the deals more attractive. And the government is trying to drum up new bidders in other parts of the world, such as East Asia. Last year MTR of Hong Kong, Mitsui of Japan and Japan Rail East entered Britain’s franchising market, and want to expand. Not only is Britain leaving the European Union—many of its trains are, too.