[quote=GH]Without adequate last mile infrastructure all of these public transport ideas are doomed to fail.

In UK where train travel used to be fantastic, it was decided to cut all of the rural money losing tracks. Officials were “surprised” to find previously money making main tracks now faced substantially reduced traffic and thus were also no longer profitable. Of course the presence of a union mandated “fire man” (looks after the coal burner) even on electric lines is laughable …[/quote]
Unions aside, I’m not sure how people are getting about if they’ve stopped using public transport. They certainly won’t be all using their cars. The M25 currently holds the title for the largest car park in the UK. The need for the London congestion charge sent the message “we have enough cars thanks”. How many lines in the UK were ever profitable? The problem is very old tracks and trains and not enough money to upgrade them. Public transport almost certainly need government subsidies to run.