I struggle to understand how unions/government are often seen as the problem. Some of the best public transit I've experienced have been in places with strong unions and more government-owned/managed public transit e.g. much of Europe. Some of the worst in places where unions are weak and "public" transit is largely out-sourced to private entities operating on behalf of public transit agencies e.g. the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

I live in New Zealand public transit in NZ used to be incredibly bad during the heights of private operation in the 1990's but has improved heaps over the last 10-20 years as local/central govt have progressively taken back control over more aspects of public transit. However public agencies are still not allowed to directly operate bus or train services which still sees private companies failing to provide good service with no consquences and public agencies unable to take over to provide the service improvements that are needed. It is interesting to compare New Zealand in the 1950's had one of the highest levels of public transit usage per capita under public ownership of buses and railways. This dropped down to embrassingly low levels after out-sourcing to private entities to a low in the 1990's.

It has only been under government leadership that we have seen a revival to the current levels (e.g. doubling to 100+ million trips per annum in our biggest city from well below 50 million in the mid-1990's) due to local government coordinating public transit systems (and contracting private entities to operate to the timetables set by public authorities) that meets the needs of the users and not just private entities making a profit. Unions have been vocal too for improving systems not only for transit employees but also recognising that what's best for transit users also benefit transit employees.

YMMV and possibly depends on the political environment in each country.