alt Hacker NewsThe best formula for public transit is the Rail plus Property business model. In Hong Kong, the MTR Corporation buys up land adjacent to a planned future station, then builds the station afterwards. Then makes money from renting out the properties adjacent to the station.
JR East in Japan operates in the same way: it makes the majority of its profit from the real estate, malls, and hotels it operates adjacent to its train stations.
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No need to give distant examples - the US train boom used the same strategy.
Sure, that might be the optimal strategy. But to fix what already exists, using self driving cars to feed in to the existing network could work.
Especially if the Waymo data feeds back to the government to plan scheduled PT on the most popular routes.
I don't like having more feudalism though. One company owning all the good land - yikes!