[Verse 1] Eighteen forty-nine, Calcutta ledgers open wide, East Indian and Great Peninsula, investors satisfied, Five percent they're promised, rain or drought or rail delay, London bondholders sleep sound while someone else must pay. That someone is the farmer, taxed to cushion every fall, His harvest money backstops a company that won't crawl, Profit stays in private pockets, loss gets spread like dust, The crown called it a bargain — the ryot called it rust. [Chorus] Guaranteed, guaranteed, five percent and planted seed, Private rail on public leash, the risk rolls down where taxes bleed, India, France, then Belgium's line, Bismarck buys it back in time, Remember the whole deal in a single breath: Profits private, losses public — that's the guaranteed railways. [Verse 2] Eighteen fifty-nine in Paris, Franqueville lifts his pen, Conventions of state guarantee for engineers and men, If the trains don't turn a profit, treasury fills the hole, Compagnies bank the dividends while Paris plays the goal. But Belgium moved in thirty-four, no middleman, no mask, State hands laid the rails themselves — a sovereign, simpler task, Two different roads to one depot, same question in the air: Who swallows the shortfall when the numbers don't play fair? [Chorus] Guaranteed, guaranteed, five percent and planted seed, Private rail on public leash, the risk rolls down where taxes bleed, India, France, then Belgium's line, Bismarck buys it back in time, Remember the whole deal in a single breath: Profits private, losses public — that's the guaranteed railways. [Verse 3] Then came Bismarck, iron chancellor, eighteen seventy-nine, Looked at scattered private tracks and drew a sharper line, Nationalize the network, let the treasury collect, Freight and fares and tariffs now the state will architect. No more interest guaranteed to men who never lose, Prussia owns the rolling stock, the profit's state to use, From risk-shifted charity to a revenue machine, The railway turns from burden to the richest thing unseen. [Bridge] Centuries from Tudor coin to carriage, steam, and grease, Same old question asked again: who pays when profits cease? Availability payments, PFI's quiet heir, The ghost of Franqueville still haunts the hospital and square. Guarantee the investor, let the public shoulder fall, History keeps murmuring the oldest deal of all. [Chorus] Guaranteed, guaranteed, five percent and planted seed, Private rail on public leash, the risk rolls down where taxes bleed, India, France, then Belgium's line, Bismarck buys it back in time, Remember the whole deal in a single breath: Profits private, losses public — that's the guaranteed railways. [Outro] Five percent in Calcutta, a convention by the Seine, Steel in Belgian soil, an eagle swallowing the chain, Guaranteed, nationalized — remember how it reads: Public bears the burden, private banks the needs.
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