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Even back in the "dual system" days when two companies operated the majority of the subway, most of the lines / tunnels were built or financed by the city: http

Even back in the "dual system" days when two companies operated the majority of the subway, most of the lines / tunnels were built or financed by the city: https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Chapter_1:_Dual_System_of_Rapid_Transit https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Chapter_1:_Dual_System_of_Rap... Later on, the city built its own third competitor to the two private operators, and eventually ended up purchasing them both. These days the entire system is owned by the state of New York (which took over when the city was out of money during the decline of the 1960/70s). (There is a lot more nuance here... but the highlight is that the city/state often directly or indirectly financed capital construction regardless of whether they were the operator of the system at the time)

mulmen 9y ago
Thanks. This doesn’t sound much different from how most public transit is built.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
The BRT was formed from the remains of the privately-financed Long Island Traction Company [1][2]. It went bankrupt and was merged into the more public-private bits. The lines it laid as a private enterprise remain today. The IRT looked more like the British rail system, with the public lending to the company, which was under public-private management. By mileage, the BRT built the most. By transit volume, the public-private Dual Contractors outperformed the IND, though that was in part due to the latter's late start. It remains that the bulk of the New York City subway system was, by any metric, built under private management and, by mileage, financed with private capital. All that said, I have no illusions about whether private ownership would be possible today. (It is debatable whether it was possible then, given they went bankrupt.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Traction_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Traction_Company [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_New_York_City_Subway#The_first_subways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_New_York_City_S...

mulmen 9y ago

Thanks. This doesn’t sound much different from how most public transit is built.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

The BRT was formed from the remains of the privately-financed Long Island Traction Company [1][2]. It went bankrupt and was merged into the more public-private bits. The lines it laid as a private enterprise remain today. The IRT looked more like the British rail system, with the public lending to the company, which was under public-private management. By mileage, the BRT built the most. By transit volume, the public-private Dual Contractors outperformed the IND, though that was in part due to the latter's late start. It remains that the bulk of the New York City subway system was, by any metric, built under private management and, by mileage, financed with private capital. All that said, I have no illusions about whether private ownership would be possible today. (It is debatable whether it was possible then, given they went bankrupt.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Traction_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Traction_Company [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_New_York_City_Subway#The_first_subways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_New_York_City_S...