>>1945945It's easy to say "Uh like tires wear out and metal wheels don't," but that's a very surface level observation. If a wheel gets a flat spot, you have to turn it to put it back in round, and once the flange gets thin it's a total replacement. They don't last indefinitely. I would guess that the cost of inspecting and maintaining the tracks, catenary, and trams themselves (plus the increased regulatory overhead of rail vehicles) makes trams more expensive to operate than buses. That's true of light rail (speaking of the US only).
