This approach also has the advantage that when the fare paying customers get sick of riding cramped old relics and horrendously uncomfortable buses, the service can then be ditched because "nobody rides it".
Although that list of demands from the mayors seems ridiculous, other than Richmond line duplication and extending the NWRL the final couple of km (look at a map, the line under construction almost connects through, terminating a couple of km short of a connection).
Heavy infrastructure is expensive. Nobody is questioning that, it is fact. This is true of both busway class A and rail class A projects, and indeed, other modes like Monorail etc.
Under a fixed budget, the higher the price of something, the less quantity of that something there is to roll out.
For a fraction of the cost of 1km of fixed rail or busway (i.e. Stones Corner busway), the entire bus network could undergo major reno. There is probably major waste in the bus network also, so much of this is likely to be self-funding as well.
Busway, light rail (class A ROW) and heavy rail stations are generally spaced at 1km intervals, there is little to stop new longer distance services experimenting with something similar for a longer distance bus product.
Bus-Rail Interchange, Toronto.