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For working example, see Singapore. That being said automated systems still require maintenance and maintenance engineers could get unionized and still have sim

• dnautics 9y ago
  Singapore is also lucky in that the planners matched the routes with actual transit demand (not hard when it's a small island). I think the only realistic way that the US is going to have good public transit is when city operators allow privatized public transit. Singapore's lines, for example, until this year were privatized companies competing for contracts - one of the companies was nationalized, so who knows moving forward... But in any case, Singapore is the cleanest, fastest public transport system in the world, and is considerably cheaper than any in the US.
  • Spooky23 9y ago
    Mass transit is just like any other capital intensive fixed industry — they tend to go out of business a lot without implicit or explicit subsidy. Most of the New York City MTA system was built out of the ashes of defunct rail and bus companies that were devastated by inflation, bad business decisions, inability to handle maintenance costs or inability to raise capital. Today most US mass transit is controlled by public authorities which are like a .gov/corporate hybrid. Telecom has similar problems, but went a different route, where AT&T was able to secure a monopoly to build out the network in exchange for public utility status and some regulatory strings. Since privatization, telecom has gone back to that model to deliver long-term profit, gobbling up cable and media. Except this time they are dumping the public utility part.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]