Oh dear! British Rail was certainly not awesome, at least not in its later years.

Rail travel in the UK is still very safe. As safe as it's always been. In other words safer than any other form of transportation other than air.

Travelling at certain times has certainly become more expensive - but not 10x more expensive.

People's biggest gripe is that rail privatisation was sold as being the cure for everything. Unfortunately, and predictably, it wasn't. Trains still don't run on time, they're still (relatively) expensive and determining the cost of a ticket has become a challenge. Some of the privatised companies even make profit - albeit helped by subsidies from the government.