Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
So true. But generations ago, almost all of these transit companies were private enterprises. Which is usually the case in America, private enterprises seeking profits usually provident greater services. Once government stepped in to regulate the private enterprises for the greater good, i.e. keeping fares as low as possible, that's when the private enterprises started to go bankrupt. Eventually, the various local governments had to step in to save the services, and as usual were terrible at managing it. So services declined over time.
What's so new about that? Why are so many surprised that governments can not compete with private enterprise providing goods and services?
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You're right about the problem being government decisions, but not the decisions you're referring to. Government stepped in to try and save public transit including railways after it started to decline. The decline wasn't a result of government taking over successful services.
The government decisions that are to blame are the subsidization of suburban development and automobile infrastructure which allowed private autos to out compete passenger railways.