Excellent article. In my view in SA is that the "mini bus" taxi should be retained as the public transport of choice.  BUT, way more strictly controlled, primarily as regards safety (duh).

I suspect that, like trucks vs the railways, public transport that uses common infrastructure with private vehicles essentially benefits from cross-subsidisation. A simple example (in SA) is motorcycles generally paying the same toll fee as cars is obviously unfair and is a hidden subsidy. The subsidy for public transport is usually obvious and massive; like the Gautrain.