Well I laid out the fundamentals of why it's wrong. Very very very wrong. No you're not locked into one or two suppliers, there must close to a dozen that I've seen. It's a competitive field.

Engines again, ICE engines wear out fast relatively speaking. That's the nature of them. Even diesels. Electric engines are robust as fuck. There aren't a lot of wear parts. I forgot to mention that the cost of diesel is way more than the cost of electricity, not even accounting for the cost of carbon.

There is the point that there is little local manufacturing for whatever country is buying them, but that does not mean by default that prices are high. That just means no local manufacturing for the local economy.

And it makes sense, as cars are more common than trains. That also seems to increase driver’s salary, as it is easier by volume to find/train a driver for a bus than one for a LRT, given same capacity, and a LRT and BRTs have comparable capacities per vehicle.

Oh jeez.

You have to train bus drivers just like you have to train train drivers. In either case they are in the same or similar unions so will be paid similarly.

A LRT can have over a thousand passengers per train (that's multiple cars coupled together just to be clear). You aren't getting that in a freaking bus. Like wow. The ONLY way you can say they are comparable is if you take a ridiculously short train and an extended bus, and even that the train will have more. AND that's the whole point, you can couple train cars together. You can't do that with buses. This just shows you either aren't discussing in good faith or you have incredibly bad information. I'll give you one out that the current trend is shorter and more frequent trains (and current trend of low floor lowers capacity), which I think is a mistake that we will regret in 20 to 30 years because like it or not we need to design for rush hour.

And with that I am out. Just wow.

This comes down to high initial cost just because that's how it works and then lower operating cost.

[–] Danitos@reddthat.com 0 points 6 days ago

Electric engines are robust as fuck. There aren’t a lot of wear parts

That is mentioned in the references, where a twice the expected for a rail-bases vehicle life is estimated. I never claimed otherwise.

You have to train bus drivers just like you have to train train drivers. In either case they are in the same or similar unions so will be paid similarly.

I know that any company requires training, I never claimed otherwise. However, I assure you that in several countries it is far easier to find a person capable of being trained for a BRT than a LRT, including mine where there's basically 0 train infrastructure. This higher skillet requirement, and therefore higher salary, is mentioned in the reference I posted.

AND that’s the whole point, you can couple train cars together. You can’t do that with buses.

I feel like you are confusing HRTs and LRTs. I see HRTs as better alternatives to BRTs, but BRTs as better than LRTs. Looking at some number online, Dalla's LRT has a very comparable capacity than that of Bogotá's BRT, as it is smaller per vehicle; I'm not saying this implies that BRT is better, as Bogotá's has in its fleet the biggest BRT in the world, just saying they are definitely comparable. Granted, this is not a systematic comparison, and you'll likely think I cherry picked, but I just chose Bogotá as that's where I live, and Dallas by looking at a guide to LRTs

This comes down to high initial cost just because that’s how it works and then lower operating cost.

Initial costs is usually paid in the form of loans, so it is an operating costs as well. This was mentioned in the reference.

I think it's fair if you consider I'm discussing in bad faith, this is not my field of expertise and I'm pretty ignorant in the topic, despite some efforts. However, I really think that my bad-faith is not out of sheer lazyness.