[Shivetya]

only better bus routes, preferential treatment for buses, and more routes, will alleviate the issue. light rail is a boondoggle for every city that has it with a combined near hundred billion dollar deferred maintenance tab across the US.

Light rail goes where it is politically beneficial and that rarely aligns where people need it. it the becomes such a money sink that other parts of the mass transit system are short changed to prop it up and in some cases bus routes are made worse in order to cajole people onto rail they don't want to use. then throw in the whole land cost and it just becomes silly, you could always raise the cost ten fold and go underground /s

[bluGill]

Light rail is the right investment when the existing buses running every 5 minutes typically have > 80 people on them. Most US routes didn't prove it with the bus first though which means they have no idea if it is true.

There is only other reason to run light rail: you are doing bridge over a route that doesn't have any road bridges and want to ensure drivers won't take the bridge over.