In the UK, it’s a tad different. The Tube and buses are nationalised but the National Rail is privatised which explains why it’s shit and yet so expensive.
Similarily in Germany the DB (Deutsche Bahn) was also privatized in the 90s (100% owned by the government tho). Since then half of all points/switches were removed since they’re expensive to maintain. This leads to many trains being late, which propagates through the entire railroad network. And half of the revenue of DB comes from businesses other than transporting people because the latter isn’t really profitable. Infrastructure isn’t profitable, that’s why mass transport should be nationalised (again). Just like roads.
Luxembourg is extremely wealthy and really small, which makes not charging for mass transit easier. But I agree that mass transit (at least regional, not bullet trains) should be free to use.
There’s now a 50€ ticket in Germany which allows for use of all regional trains, but it’ll get more expensive over the coming years too.
