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Most mass transit systems we have were originally privately built and operated until they became unprofitable in the 1930s-40s at which point they were publicly
by gok 8y ago
Most mass transit systems we have were originally privately built and operated until they became unprofitable in the 1930s-40s at which point they were publicly taken over. More recently there has been a resurgence of "public-private partnerships" where a private company builds a project and then gets a long term deal to extract money from it once it's done. Denver's recent transit expansion is one example.
A potential downside is that we might end up back in the 1940s, when the subways became unprofitable and cities were forced to buy them out of bankruptcy because residents came to rely on them.
- cassieramen 8y agoIt's important to remember that the federal government was actively subsidizing the urban exodus to suburbia in the 1940s. The subway became unprofitable due to federal housing policy and the local or state government ended up having to bail it out.
- pg_bot 8y agoThe NYC subway became unprofitable due to the terrible contracts that the operators signed.[0] Specifically they could not increase the fare greater than five cents, which doomed them because of inflation. The city took over the BMT and IRT companies on June 1st 1940. Suburbanization did not really start occurring in the US until after the end of WW2. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Contracts#Conditions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Contracts#Conditions