Although, as I mention when people rant about how no one will use California High Speed Rail when it's finished, BART carries 360,000 people a day. The standard response to that is usually pure denial.
What we have in the US is the result of under-funding public transportation for the last 75 years.
BART should be a massive success story, given its original objectives. The Transbay Tube is running at nearly full capacity and they cannot push any more workers into downtown SF if they wanted to. And the experience is ten times better average public transit, eg relative to local bum-mobiles.
Compare that to the local SF MUNI, which is primarily focused on enriching the corrupt union and corrupt vendors. And of course, service sucks, because nobody cares about it other that the political kickbacks.
Except! BART is exactly the same. Every few years the BART union threatens to shut down the San Francisco economy, and the politicians always, always fold.
So the conclusion should be: BART is actually only successful despite themselves because they control a key piece of infrastructure. Otherwise it is just your typical shitty corrupt government transit OP.
You want CA High Speed Rail to be run like BART. Check out the CAHSR blog. They have a very active poster in your corner.
What we have in the US is the result of under-funding public transportation for the last 75 years.