When mass transit is seen as a government service, comparable to water, education, police / fire, roads, etc. and not as a “company” then it will start to operate as intended. Right now we have systems trying to break even with the end result being sporadic service and a large contingent of people opting for other means of transportation.

A great example is the Coaster in San Diego County. It does not operate on Sundays or weekend evenings which means I drive downtown when I would much rather take the public transportation. And there is a market; they run special trains for the baseball games that are heavily used.