Some countries do have (theoretically) privatized passenger rail systems. It can be done without subsidies too, the UK nearly managed that for a brief period, b

Some countries do have (theoretically) privatized passenger rail systems. It can be done without subsidies too, the UK nearly managed that for a brief period, but then decided to pay for the construction of huge new railways. If you aren't expanding the network though, subsidy free operation is possible. Of course we can argue they're not really private because in practice the government won't let them fail as a group. But in normal times at least, companies that want to exit the space can give up their license or be outcompeted for them. SpaceX exists because there's now lots of use cases for going into space. In the 60s indeed going into space wasn't so useful and it happened so early just because of the space race.