It depends on the kind of transit advocate you are. To me it appears that with the amount of investment the government has already and continues to put into the

It depends on the kind of transit advocate you are. To me it appears that with the amount of investment the government has already and continues to put into the automotive sector (building infrastructure, keeping laws that keep them pretty protected, etc), inter-city transit is handled pretty well by the private sector. You have all sorts of private inter-city bus services (megabus, boltbus, etc. and of course the Chinatown buses that have connected Chinatowns across the country for decades) that work pretty well to keep costs down and are pretty efficient. The government can step in to require certain minimum labor protections and safety and maintenance standards, but I don't think there's much need for govts to actually run inter-city buses. In larger cities with a lot of buses governments should create an open bus depot where all the different private operators can rent gates (much like an airport), so there's a centralized location where services such as food, drinks, taxi services, public transport, etc., but this could very easily be a profitable venture that would not require govt. support (other than requiring inter-city buses to use the depot). I'd rather have govt support other inter-city services where it currently does not put much investment in, such as rail.