I’m not saying the current systems should be privatized. Maybe this is just my city and wasn’t the norm across the country, but back in the 20-40s my city was completely covered by around 10 different street car lines run by private companies and not run by the local government. GM later bought all those companies through a shell and phased them out in favor of cars. It wasn’t until years later that the city tried to implement its own light rail.

Big part of why the whole industry is resistant to EVs, and why those that are doing EVs are introducing obscenely expensive subscriptions to basic features, is because of the reduced number of maintenance items on a battery/electric motor compared to an ICE motor.