Seems it is the same everywhere -
Initially railroads, telegraphy, post system, streets, waterworks, power plants are built with collected taxes (regardless being built by private companies or the state), and often run by the governments by which they were built, or ordered to be built.
Prices are going up slowly, all works and is well maintained.
At some point the governments decide they need money, so they begin to sell (read: privatize) those installations to private companies, to get instant cahs and plug the holes.
(Always mentioning to the unwashed masses how prices will go down, due to the competition of private companies. Little do the people know that all companies try to monopolize, so prices will of course NOT go down, but rise, and heftily.)
So all is being privatized, meaning it is expropriated from the people, now belonging to private companies, who
1. raise fees and prices to get more money, and
2. begin to neglect te maintenance and upkeep of existing installations while firing workers and reducing expenses for. e.g. maintaining the rails, and signals, to get more cash.
Then there willl be late arrivals, and minor accidents will become bigger over the years, while the infrastructure decays, until voilą: The state buys it all back, and begins to repair the mess.
With - you knew it - taxes.
Whoever saw the british film "Navigators" will know what i mean
