[adam_arthur]

Yes, combination of the misaligned incentives of government coupled with a public sector union.

Given the lack of a profit motive, a well run government needs incentive structures to motivate results towards societally good outcomes. Too bad none of the local, state, federal governments do. Would be easy to institute if the will were there though

Edit: To address your edit, the private subway systems failed after NY instituted a price cap on fares, IIRC. And inflation destroyed their profitability over time due to this.

Once the subway system was made public, development pretty much halted entirely, outside of an extension every few decades.

Subway systems are private in Japan

[cmeacham98]

You seem to be magically appending "with a public sector union" to the real cause of the majority of MTA's problems.

Sorry, but I don't buy this guilt by association: How does the union cause a significant portion of MTA's problems?

[adam_arthur]

It compounds them. Government has no incentive for real results, union leads to highly overpaid employees who are frequently caught not working on the clock.

Two separate problems for sure, both bad for the rest

[cmeacham98]

> union leads to highly overpaid employees who are frequently caught not working on the clock

Can you demonstrate this, or provide any evidence for it at all?

The reason I ask this is because you seem to be automatically assuming Union=Bad with no reason to do so.

[adam_arthur]

Happens all the time in the MTA, just Google it

[cmeacham98]

So in other words, you can only prove the MTA has lazy employees, and are assuming that the union is causing that (with no evidence).

That's what I wanted to know, thanks!