Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

Why do airplanes have multiple classes but not public transportation?

Many train lines across the world do have the concept of classes. First class trains have more room and nicer amenities.

Yes. Comfort, security and services definitely limit public transport’s appeal. Consider the difference, in New York, between taking a ferry and the subway.

Similarly, I can recline and nap on an Uber from San Francisco. Not so on the Caltrain.

If by "public transportation" we restrict ourselves to short-range metropolitan services, as used for commuting, all else being equal then the answer is no.

The reason for this "no" depends on whether we're talking about an area where public transport is highly developed (e.g. most urban areas of Western Europe and Japan) or areas in which it is underfunded and underdeveloped and is mostly seen as transport for poor people (e.g. most of the USA except NYC).

In the case of developed public transportation the answer is no, because simply adding first class would decrease capacity, which at rush hour is already at its limits. Hence, while a first class may attract a few new users, it would necessarily decrease the overall capacity of the system resulting in fewer users overall.

In the case of underdeveloped transportation, the answer is also no. The reason is that simply adding a first class to an insufficiently planned and inefficient network would still be little more than a more comfortable alternative for the less poor users to use said inefficient and insufficiently planned network through the city. In other words, the only people who would use it were those who were already doing so, be it out of principle (environmentalism), necessity (foreign students) or convenience (the bus just happens to be the perfect route to work and they can read a book on it), but who can actually afford this newly introduced first class. So, no net gain in terms of users.

If you want to increase the number of users of public transportation you don't need first class. You need more capacity and better and more efficient networks.

Depends when on the Caltrain. During rush hour? Definitely not but I started offsetting my commute by even a half hour and the Caltrain was usually pretty empty, enough to stretch out and close my eyes.

I’d befriended the operators/conductors on my routes and they’d always tell me when there was a nice open spot somewhere too during rush hour.

But I do agree with your point that the comfort did leave something to want for. That, and security. Napping on public transit is an easy way to get pick pocketed.