Seattle Transit was busy tearing out trolley bus routes in the early 1960's. Some people were upset about this and an initiative to stop the gubmint and save the trolleys in 1964 was put to a vote. The majority of the people were convinced of the advantages of diesel buses put forth by the Transit Commission and the newspaper cheerleaders. The three main points made were no unsightly wires, route flexibility and cheap diesel fuel. The people agreed it would be best to dismantle the system. Wikipedia states that routes to the north and west of Seattle were removed, they are wrong however, because we lived on a trolley route at the edge of the southern boundary of Seattle and I saw those wires come down with my own lying eyes.
A couple decades later the trolleys came back to some extent and I watched them reinstall the catenary back in front of our house in south Seattle. Funny the route never changed, it stayed on the arterials, never using the route flexibility of the buses to navigate side streets and alleys in our neighborhood. Cheap diesel got a lot more expensive in the 70's.
People did not like rail either and it is too bad you people in California missed your chance by just a few votes to rid yourself of the SF cable cars. I once read many years ago, every city that put the streetcar issue to a vote were told by the people to rip them out. The imbecile Barry Commoner pushed the myth about GM and Firestone being responsible for the demise of the streetcars, an enduring one at that.