That said, the Northern and Central tube lines (London) are often crowded/hellish like this and are public, I dread to think how awful the tube would become if privatised!
It's like a cheap, modern, less cramped version of the best lines on the tube.
All the other lines are mixed private/public and they run very well.
The story here isn't as simple as "public good, private bad, mixed worse." As with many things in life, it all depends on the actual details.
No other country comes close, even Japan, to the public transport of Seoul.
Living in the UK, it's constant fear of being suffocated, melted or pushed onto the tracks at peak. In Korea it's basically just social troubles.
And for a more recent example the PPPs for maintenance of the tube set up twenty years ago.