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Because the decision whether or not to invest in public transport is a political one. A private company can't force society to allocate more tax money to publi
by elihu 9y ago
Because the decision whether or not to invest in public transport is a political one. A private company can't force society to allocate more tax money to public transport infrastructure. It can, however, provide more attractive infrastructure options, which seems to be what the Boring company is trying to do.
- arcticbull 9y agoIt could just build transit though couldn't it? Instead of sleds? Private companies operate passenger and freight rail networks, especially in the UK to my understanding.
- elihu 9y agoI believe they're usually heavily subsidized. Possibly, if a private company could reduce costs enough they could operate a transit system without subsidies and make money doing it, but I think ordinarily a private company running public transit is heavily reliant on government support. (Bus networks might be an exception, since they can use the roads that already exist and there isn't a huge up-front cost.) It sounds like the Boring company is mostly interested in providing the capability to make small tunnels cheaply. The car sled thing is just one possible way to use the tunnels, but if some city wants to do something different with them that's up to them.
- nickik 9y agoAt least for Buses this is highly regulated in the US. I would assume the same is true for everything else. Free-Market people have long advocated for a liberalisation of buses and taxis. Uber has help breaking the Taxi monopoly, but the Bus regulation still stand. Eventually somebody will attack Uber because of too much ridesharing and accuse them of breaking the laws against private buses.