Comment
Comment by thehappypm
Public transportation should really just be bus-based.
Every city that has a large public transit system — worldwide - spends an absolute fortune on trains, track maintenance, overhead lines, operators, and so on. Even shiny European systems are hugely hugely expensive. They often use a wide variety of approaches — Boston for example has about a half dozen completely incompatible rolling stock. Buses can be deployed and scaled cheaply, routes can adapt quickly, dedicated bus lanes can be built with paint and not tunnels. Choke points can use dedicated right-of-way and electric infrastructure can go into tunnels with far less ventilation need. Buses can handle a fallen tree by driving around it. Buses don’t need special tracks to take them to depots. A down bus doesn’t back up the buses behind it. The list goes on and on.