I found the BRT line in Guadalajara, Mexico to be pretty great. And Pittsburgh has its issues but it mostly works. (Still too much potential for it to be held up by gridlock, poorly behaving drivers, etc., in my view. You've gotta clear and protect the whole route or it's just a bus.)

To be clear, I would absolutely support a rail project if the conversation were about, say, the state legislature significantly increasing funding for SEPTA and the various ways we might use that new infusion of cash. (I think the width of the boulevard still counsels in favor of something above ground, but there's no reason that can't be rail.) I'm making this argument in the context of (1) SEPTA's meager capital budget, and (2) the existential need to eliminate as many car miles as possible as quickly as possible.

OK, so here's the thing: Bus Rapid Transit doesn't inherently suck. It sucks because we usually do it badly and make it get stuck in traffic along portions of its route. The Boulevard is the PERFECT place for it to be done correctly, with its own right of way, signal priority, and generous stations akin to what you'd expect for a tram service. There's so much horizontal space available, high traffic speeds, etc. I would love to see rail instead some day, and we should contemplate that future when designing the BRT system. But we have limited funds for this sort of thing and we can get a good BRT done cheaply there. That plus an improved connection to the BSL would be so much more valuable than a shiny new rail project. (And you can imagine BRT connecting west as far as the Wiss Transit Center or continuing onto Route 1, which rail is not going to do any time soon.)

I have had a similar experience where Google Maps doesn't know that a SEPTA route ends in a spot when the route looks like a loop and will pick back up from the same stop a little later. I have also had a pretty weird one where I was the only one on board, and the bus driver said "I'll be back in a bit," turned the bus off, and left for like 15 minutes only to return with a hoagie.