Where I live we have fully dedicated bus roads. Maybe they costs less than light rail - I don't know. They are very popular. The suburbs they service are 20

Where I live we have fully dedicated bus roads. Maybe they costs less than light rail - I don't know. They are very popular. The suburbs they service are 20..30km away, and the dedicated roads make the long part of the trip very fast and comfortable. The far ends of the roads looks more like a train station, as they have large car parks surrounding them. Other cities in Australia now look on in envy. There doesn't seem to be much chance of the buses being abandoned when the budget grows tight. A dedicated 2 lane mostly raised bus highway running parallel to a 8 lane highway isn't much use for anything besides buses, and they weren't cheap to build.