I do really wish it had more actual subway lines (and not dedicated streetcar lanes, etc.). But the Canadian municipal governments are neither powerful nor rich, unlike many of the other large cities listed, despite being a quite prosperous and growing city. A lot depends on the provincial government.

Also, it is incredibly lame that there is not a subway to the airport.

However, the maximum 5 min waiting time for a subway (and 2-3 min during rush hour) is very nice, and a huge contrast with, say, the Paris subway, where I think I waited 15 minutes for a subway once late at night. But really, with so few lines, you need that frequency for a 5 million person metropolitan area.

Toronto has a few additional forms of transport and many people do not even use the Subway on a daily basis thanks to those.

- Streetcars run all along downtown. Yup, they get stuck in traffic too but we have two streetcars running on dedicated lines now (St. Clair and Spadina), and they are pretty efficient.

- GO Trains connect the suburbs to the downtown core, and they are basically how anyone living outside of downtown Toronto get into the city if they are not using a car.

- Subways here run ever 5 minutes, unless there is a delay (Surprisingly rare), so the system is pretty efficient.

Despite all of this. I agree, the system is pretty weak, but after moving here my car's been sitting idle on my drive-way on a daily basis. I can easily get anywhere in the city, using my car only to leave the city. They are doing a lot to increase the subway line, but are also adding a lot more dedicated light rail lines.

We get health care instead of transit.

That is in no means an opinion of what is better, just simply a statement as to how underfunded our transit systems are and how much we spend on health care overall, from a federal and provincial point of view.

Not sure what you mean. A simple look at Vancouver reveals a modern, plastic accepting, completely automated and growing network of under and above-ground trains. Oh, and that isn't owned by the government. Could that be the issue?

Point is that there are 3 extensions to that system I can name right now that should be put in place though prior to it being considered adequate to the region, never mind going beyond.

1. Extension to UBC 2. Evergreen Extension 3. Surrey Extension

If you look a Toronto, they're desperate for a complete conversion - New York style - to a subway/mass transit only system. There is so much they should be doing, but aren't.

I don't need the transit to be owned by government, but both Federal and Provincial levels should be regular contributors, like they are in every other nation.

The TTC is also much cleaner than London or NYC. I think we in TO complain a lot, but for what limited area our subway does cover, it is pretty good.