[mwadswor]

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

1. Lease out retail space in subway stations - maybe something like a Star Bucks or McDonalds - grab breakfast before boarding that train to work.

Love it, this always seems successful when I see it done in places like Bangkok or London.

2. First class cars - may cost double or triple (or more) to ride in, but would have nice leather seats, wood paneling, brass, stained glass, wifi access, tables for laptops, power outlets, maybe even reserved seating. The super rich could have their own custom designed private cars.

This seems to work in Mexico and Dubai, but I'm not sure if it would work in the US. But, if you're really going to cater to the "super rich" make it more like ten times the cost of a normal ticket and make the car good enough to get Trump out of his limo. I don't see any reason to cater to those who are just rich enough that they're going to drive anyway, cater to those who are rich enough that you not only get them out of their cars but they'll be willing to pay enough to make the car outright profitable.

3. First class stations - for the busy exec who has everything. Maybe half a dozen in key locations - only accessible by private trains.

This is the only one that really seems completely infeasible. To justify the cost of building a private subway station you would probably end up having to charge more per ride than it would cost the client to simply buy a helicopter/pad/pilot. The only way to do this in any workable sense would be to officially open the existing lines to usage by private trains and interchange with private lines at the private entity's expense. I don't think anyone will take you up on it, but if Trump wants to build his own connection and own station then he can pay to run his train on the public tracks.

4. Locker rentals at stations, some big enough for bikes or scooters. Would have power outlets for recharging various devices.

I take it back, this is the only suggestion that really is 100% undoable. The government's trying to figure out how to make our transit systems more secure, not ways to build places where the terrorist can leave his bomb and walk around the corner without raising any suspicion. There are cities in the world where it's near impossible to even find a public trash can because people are so paranoid about terrorists, I really don't think anyone is going to ever agree to put private lockers at such a high value terrorism target.

5. Party trains, with bars, jacuzi's, small dance floor, karaoke.... A unique way to celebrate that special day.

Hell yeah, sign me up.

6. Corporate sponsorship of stations - not only name rights, but the ability to totally makeover stations - ads galore, retail space, video walls - lots of possibilities here.

7. Ad wrappers for buses and trains, subway tunnels.

I agree, but only if you force the sponsors to do all or nothing. Turning a bus/train/station into a giant classified ad always ends up just looking tacky IMO, but it can look cool as hell when you wrap the entire bus or train car in one ad or if you just turn the whole station into Macintosh land or Boeing land. Perhaps instead of directly charging sponsors for the right to place their ads, you could sort of sell them the entire car or station. They put whatever they want in there, wherever they want, and they're responsible for all the cleaning and maintenance of that station or whatever buses or cars they've bought (as long as they conform to security/ticketing standards and don't get to many complaints for neglect). If it's a popular enough program that you run out of stations (not something I think will happen in the near future), you can start charging them for the maintenance on the tracks for X feet on either side of their station too.