The term 'public transport' is generally defined as trains, buses, trams, or ferries, where 1. the vehicle is large, carrying many people, 2, it runs according to a schedule that the passengers must comply with, and 3. is usually state owned and operated. But this received definition seems to exclude passenger aircraft, such as when QANTAS was owned by the state, it fit all three of those criteria, yet was not generally regarded as being public transport. Similarly long distance coaches, taxis, nor privatised implementations of the above are not usually thought of as public transport. Why public transport should be defined in this way really only suits the unions for those modes of transport and the central planning lobbies that advocate for expansion of such services.
