I have submitted a number of stop requests, which I know arent exciting but my area doesnt have a lot of options that meet the criteria so they are continuously rejected, yet Ive seen stops that in locations similar to mine or even more questionable. One recently created in the industrial area of the neighbouring suburb that isnt fit for children nor has anything noteworthy, unless misogynistic encounters are now deemed culturally significant.
How does that get approved and my boring yet safe submission (trying to get one at the bus stop near hardware store that is used by many kids and adults, and also the walking route to train station) gets rejected.
Welcome to the forum @mentalentil
Rejections can be frustrating, but you have come to the right place if you want advice and help finding eligible things in your area.
An industrial area isn’t necessarily grounds for rejection. So long as people who are able to be in that location can access the wayspot safely on foot, and the wayspot itself is something that is eligible and wouldn’t meet any of the rejection criteria, then there’s no issue with it existing there. There can be interesting things in all manner of places.
Bus stops don’t currently meet the eligibility criteria by themselves. The eligibility criteria are that a nomination needs to be a great place to socialise, a great place to exercise, or a great place to explore, and most bus stops don’t meet those criteria without having additional things to make them interesting, such as a mural or something similar. Even then, you’re actually nominating the interesting thing and not the bus stop itself.
Bus stations are eligible as transit hubs, but not individual stops on a route. That being said, Niantic is performing an experiment in some areas where bus stops are being imported as Pokéstops. This doesn’t make them eligible, and they shouldn’t be submitted by players, but from what I’ve seen, a lot of the feedback for bus stop Pokéstops has actually been neutral to positive. My own personal opinion is that, as far as imports go, bus stops are one of the more sensible options that they’ve tried, and in future I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed if they were added to the criteria. It would certainly help in more rural areas. Currently though, they are just an experiment as stated.
You’re under no obligation to do so, but if you want to share your general location, there’s plenty of helpful people on here who would happily go looking on maps to help you find things that you could submit 
This is a possibility depending on what it actually is.
If it’s just the standard pavement (side walk) that goes to the station then this would not be eligible.
Is it a named route?
Does it have route markers along the way?
Showing us screen shots from you contribution page would allow us to give better advice.
Good Luck