It's a pendulum swing: if I'm not mistaken, public transport started out in London as an unregulated market of private providers. When this crashed, due to the social usefulnesss of the concept the government nationalised it and created a public service. It has not been fully privatised: rather the public authority contracts out the service to a private provider. But it remains effectively a public monopoly since it was nationalised.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper