> It clearly needs to be a franchise.

Think bigger. Why should transportation infrastructure (which is a public good) be controlled by a private, for-profit corporation?

Because that’s how innovation happens in the US? How are passengers trains innovating over the past 60 years?

Yes, the US sucks at investing in public infrastructure, especially transit. Obviously we should do nothing to try to change that. =)

Not the GP, but what would you suggest is a realistic alternative in the current state?

Reforming public institutions to more effectively build public transportation infrastructure seems to be incredibly difficult. Local institutions seem to have maxed out their ability to improve beyond what exists.

So why not let the private market innovate and improve? If the public institutions where smarter they'd be taking advantage of these innovations the same way as has happened in reverse when public institutions have had success with innovation.

Well one alternative is to not vote for parties which have a history of gutting government services to make them unviable and then saying "look here this must be run private" giving private companies a license to print money by offering less service for more money. Just look at what is happening with the USPS right now.