The state of Washington has sold one of its passenger ferries, the Tyee. The state mothballed the ferry after the people of this fair state slashed their license plate taxes and knocked the financial support out from under the ferry system. The big car ferries lumber on, but the passenger-only ferries are gone to history.
Some have suggested that private industry replace the service, but since the state was running them at a loss, there isn't a working business model that ensures the possiblity of just breaking even.
At some point the anti-tax pro-privatization nuts will go a bridge too far and discover that the economies of scale a government program can offer far outweigh privatizing everything under the sun. Not saying that privatization isn't necessarily a good thing, but there are a lot of things governments provide that are, by their nature, loss leaders.
