London, England provides bus transit service to its citizens through a system of competitive bidding to private contractors, and this feature creates a robust transportation network that should mitigate the negative effects of the transit strike, says Wendell Cox in an article at newgeography.com:
“By 2000, the entire London bus system had been converted to competitive tendering, with multiple contractors providing the service. Costs per mile dropped by 50%, adjusted for inflation, while service was expanded and ridership rose. Regrettably, some of the efficiency gains were lost once Ken Livingstone assumed the mayorality of the new Greater London Council, while Transport for London (the successor to London Transport) failed to pay sufficient attention to retaining economic competitiveness between the contractors. Still, things are far better today than they were 25 years ago.”
Transportation slowed down, but at least some of the regular subway users didn’t find their life grind to a halt.