I live where the govt gives absurdly large subsidies to bus companies (~500 million dollars per year) and the service as a whole still sucks balls. During peak hours, it's not uncommon for a bus to not stop because you literally wouldn't manage to get in.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are many companies that are little more than state parasites, companies that wouldn't survive against real competition, yet all the blame or any misgivings ends up on the "evil big gubmint" just because.
I live where the govt gives absurdly large subsidies to bus companies (~500 million dollars per year) and the service as a whole still sucks balls. During peak hours, it's not uncommon for a bus to not stop because you literally wouldn't manage to get in.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are many companies that are little more than state parasites, companies that wouldn't survive against real competition, yet all the blame or any misgivings ends up on the "evil big gubmint" just because.
I am not saying that throwing money at the problem solves it.
But if you want public services to also cover non-profitable areas/groups, the government needs to step in with certain measures.