Privatizing SEPTA

Maybe a better comparison would be the buses that run between Chinatowns in NYC and Philly. They cost about $20 round trip or $12 each way for a 2-hour ride

Haven't a lot of those been cited for lack of safety, not to mention speeding? They are operated by the gangs IIRC. I wouldn't use them.

besides, they compare most favorably with greyhound or amtrak as intercity transportation, rather than intracity like SEPTA is. The SFO airporter I know nothing about, but it sounds like you're comparing another specialty service to SEPTA rather than a true mass transit service. When you think of private mass transit, you have to think of a private company that actively provides general transportation around an area -- the PTC was one, Red Arrow was another, Krap(f)'s is one, and there are probably a few scattered around the country that operate similar systems to SEPTA.

Basically, the fact that a private company moves people doesn't make it a good example of privatized mass transit (heck, some local private schools woudl qualify in that case)... mass transit moves the masses, not just the tourists (Phlash) or wealthy (taxis, assuming you take it on a regular basis).

Lucius Kwok wrote:
Mass transit is part of the infrastructure of a city, like roads, sewers, and water supply. You could privatize it, which can improve its accountability, but it's ultimately a public good whose goal is to improve the standard of living for the metro area as a whole, rather than as a company making profits for itself.

This is the rub-- Mass transit, being a public service, is required to price that service at a level that the most transit dependant segment of the population can afford. Unfortunately for a private operator ( which the former private operators of most big city transit systems discovered in the 1930's-40's and '50's) the fares which this segment of the population can afford, will never provide sufficient revenues to permit the operation to break even, let alone become profitable. Thus, the private companies got out of the transit business, and left it to government, mostly in the form of transit authorities to provide this "public service". And nothing much has changed since the days of private operation, except that we have found the quality of service provided by the authorities to be, generally, no better than that provided by the private operators as they attempted to leave the business.