Agreed entirely. I think buses are only justifiable on lowly patronised routes. Basically, I believe all transport modes should be co-ordinated rather than competing.
Planes: Predominantly long haul routes, short routes where time is of the essence, and routes over water or where land transport is clearly rather impractical.
Rail: Short and medium haul intercity, long haul luxury/tourist, and urban commuting.
Trams: High use inner suburban and city commuting.
Ferries: Pretty fucking obvious.
Buses: Outer suburban and rural routes without sufficient traffic to justify a railway or tramway, feeding the rail network (or, where applicable, ferries/planes).
It'll be one of the dickheads from the bus lobby for sure, ignoring the fact that a passenger train is far more environmentally friendly than a convoy of buses. The bus lobby's latest brilliant idea is to convert one of Wellington's railway lines into a single-lane busway. Let's just say that proposal was laughed at and swiftly dismissed.
