$83,000 per user, wow! It seems that mass transit systems are a hangover from the industrial revolution and make no sense in the digital age.

Well surprise surprise! The unions left to their own devizes? Couldn't organize a round of drinks at a brewery! Quote unquote. My Irish Gran would likely add, if dey had a brain between dem, it'd be lonely, even den, you'd still hear da bludy ting rattle?

Now I reckon the answer here is, driver service and maintenance contracts and tendered for by labour hire firms, willing to guarantee timely time table service, replete with severe penalties for failing to deliver, chapter and verse!

Paddy and Mike were walking home from the pub one day, and as full as the family po!

Anyhow, they decided in their combined wisdom to take a shortcut, which just happened to be a nearby rail line. After trudging/staggering twenty miles or so, about nineteen of them past their intended stop!

Paddy conversationally inquired of Mike, bludy long staircase, hic, Mike? To which Mike, in his profound (Sunday) whuskey sodden wisdom replied, hic, ann bludy low bannisters too, hic Paddy.
Alan B.

Hell, and here am I thinking Governments run their enterprises under strict guidance of "bean counters".