Even if you think what you would say is obvious, please add. This is genuinely something I think makes sense regarding local bus routes given the longevity of light rail and how infrequently routes change, but I also suffer from confirmation bias, so I’m hoping for reasons this would be a terrible idea but obviously would prefer reasons it would be an even more amazing idea than I thought.
I would think adding railways to places would take a long time, cost a ton of money, and without enough population it doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what specific area of the world you are thinking, but most of the world is pretty empty outside of major cities, and most of them probably do have rail service.
I have old rail running right behind my house that people always want to start using again. It’s in pretty rough shape so the eyes is it’s easy to expensive to get it up to spec and the amount of public interest is too low that it become unfeasable.
Buses on the other hand, can get plopped down instantly wherever they will fit on existing infrastructure. They can go where the demands is. You can have a spare one on the lot. I’d think it’s easier to become a bus driver than a conductor. And ultimately if you need more buses, just but another, and if you decide to scrap the program, sell the bus and you have no useless remaining infrastructure.
Overall I’d it had the choice to take a bus from A to B or rail, I’d probably choose rail I’d the pickups and drop s were the same, but again, that’s also much harder to do with a train. There’s room for both, but here I think trains make more sense for longer distances and buses for local.