The countries where public transport is free say - Perth (Aus) with lower population; is because of higher income tax collected not just from citizens but also from migrant population. Also almost total compliance in terms of collecting individual tax.
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Here not even 1% of total population pays any income tax though many are above the threshold. With that collected direct tax and some indirect tax hardly we are able to feed our hungry children, let alone provide free transport.
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I agree that many political projects like bullet trains, steel bridge are just projects born out of corruption and hubris.
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But simply if you don't recover atleast some part of the operational cost and provide everything for free, the system will collapse. If you observe, Mumbai always enjoys a lot of funding from center and state compared to the rest of the country or Maha itself. Its high time they recovered some part of that; so that other parts of Maha and India got some funds for developing rail network.