In Madison County, IL, the system of public transportation defeats the private cab companies utterly and completely every single day. Buses run with Germanic punctuality while private cabs manage to arrive within the promised time frame in about 20% of cases, if that. On those extremely rare occasions when a bus runs 5 minutes late, a car or a minivan comes by to deliver the passengers to their destination on time. When this happens, you don’t have to pay for the ride.
This is the first time in my life that I see a very cheap governmental service leave much more expensive capitalist enterprises behind in the dust so completely. There are 3 of these cab companies in the area, and in every single aspect of their work they lose out completely to the public bus service.
I don’t have an explanation, I’m just observing what for me is a very strange phenomenon.
Clarissa's Blog 
We have the same problem in Québec City where cabs are hugely regulated.
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I just realize that I don’t remember whether there is a public transportation in Québec City.
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There is one.
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It’s surprising indeed. Not even “socialist” europe boasts of such a service. I’m speaking for Spain and the UK.
There are perhaps big companies that push for such a service. I’m told for instance the buses that run between Sillicon Valley and San Fransicso provide an excellent service as well.
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As a very generalised observation, localised services tend to be better wherever you go. I think to some extent, local is a more influential factor than public or private.
Doesn’t necessarily hold true – the nationalised Italian rail service offers cheap efficient service with varying levels of speed / shininess depending upon how much you want to spend.
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Fast speed trains are excellent anywehre in Europe. AVE In Spain, SNCF in France, ICE in Germany, Eurostar(London-Brussels). They’re punctual, and customer service is pretty good. I assume the same experience goes for Italian fast trains.
Regional trains or buses, however, are another story specially for smaller cities (which is similar to the context set by Clarissa). While they generally provide a good service with only minor delays. If there’s an incident they can leave you stranded for hours with no actual information. You can dream about that van picking you up that day, much less for free.
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