>>1113041There's no reason why surface street railways should not be part of a transit system.
Think about it, the logical progression is
Bus < light rail < heavy rail
I don't get why suddenly everyone decided that the progression should be
Bus < heavy rail
period. The only reason why this would happen is to free up streets for cars, and we all know how great that worked out.
The "bus+subway" concept that was so popular during the mid 20th century is utter shite. You just end up with stretches where subways are empty but cost gorillions to build, and bus lines that are completely packed.
That said, obviously meme streetcars are a thing, and they are indeed pointless, though you can't just throw it all in the same pot, since they're also a logical first step up from buses for cities with no other public transit.
Also LRT=streetcars=trams it's all the same fucking thing, stop splitting hairs. The limiting factor is: runs on street level, and obeys traffic signals (as in no absolute priority like a train with level crossings). That's why "tram-trains" are LRTs/streetcars which run on street-level tracks (mixed traffic, tram lane or full ROW) and on railway-type ROW with absolute priority.
