Public Mass Transportation

I think all of the mass transit (rail systems) in Japan are privately owned (publicly held). It means no tax money is used to used to build, maintain and upgrade the rail system. Unless I am mistaken, all rail systems except AMTRAK are owned and operated by government or government agencies. Although, AMTRK is a privately held company, the government must pour tax money into it every year.

When the businesses are owned by the government, there is no accountabilities. There is no incentive to make money. There is no reason to provide better service or cut cost. When the Japan Rail was Japan National Rail, owned and operated by the government, there were fair hike every year. There were national strike by the workers every year. But since it became private company, I do not recall any strike or increase in the fair since 1986.

Can we let AMTRAK go bankrupt?
Why not?
Why should tax payer pay for the failed business to continue?
AMTRAK serves only 25 million people every year.

I am against government bailing out any private company. Let it fail. People will learn from that. If the government keep helping them, there is no reason to succeed. I would like to see privately held mass transit system in the US.