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You should check out Mass Transit Railway from HK - code MTR in the HK stock exchange. They make tonnes of money.

Westerners have been monetizing mass transport system incorrectly. You don't make money from fares. You make money from real estate + advertising. The real estate prices around areas with MTR spikes a significant amount.

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Real-estate, retail, etc, are important parts of "the model"... but note that many Japanese private railroads do not cross-subsidize, and their rail divisions are profitable on their own. [I do not know about the HK MTR.]

In that sense, the various divisions in this model are more like symbiotic organisms, with each changing the environment in ways that allow the others to be more efficient: convenient rail transit makes nearby retail and real-estate (much) more attractive, and the traffic from popular real-estate and retail increases rail usage (significantly).

The MTR runs metros and other mass transportation system around the world. And most of those are subsidised.

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