That is left as an exercise for the reader. :)

Seriously though, aren’t there inherent monopoly problems in most [mass] transportation systems?

I’m eager to answer this, but it’s going to take a long post. More later.

Seriously though, aren’t there inherent monopoly problems in most public (as in moving lotsa people in a city as opposed to governmental) transportation systems? For such services to be useful, you will need a powerful interconnected network that works together rather than compete with each other. They broke up the rail system in England, which transformed the system from one big gov monopoly to lots of itty bitty private monopolies resulting in some lines being even worse run than others. But commuters don’t get to choose to take a better-run line — they’ll take the line that runs close to their house and like it.

I briefly lived in one of the suburbs of London earlier this year. The trains were miserable — running late, seriously delayed, or (in a couple of memorable occurances) not at all.