In most US cities, privatizing public transit wouldn't work financially.
The Bay Area Caltrain was actually private until fairly recently (1985), when the operator gave up and the state took it over.
However, even the state doesn't want to operate it, and there was a review around 2010. But Stanford University weighed in (over 10,000 riders/day) and the review stopped.
You would have to look at the numbers for NY.
Note that the "MTA" was originally two private entities that ran out of money building the system.
I don't see why. It works in Buenos Aires, for example. Any American city should be jealous of Buenos Aires' bus system.
And the bulk of the NYC subways were built and operated by competing private companies for decades. That stopped when first the city regulated them to the point that they could not make improvements, and then the city nationalized them.
The Bay Area Caltrain was actually private until fairly recently (1985), when the operator gave up and the state took it over.
However, even the state doesn't want to operate it, and there was a review around 2010. But Stanford University weighed in (over 10,000 riders/day) and the review stopped.
You would have to look at the numbers for NY.
Note that the "MTA" was originally two private entities that ran out of money building the system.