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Your comments aren't very fair or accurate regarding Toronto. Toronto's main problem is that it hasn't been building fast enough for the last decade or so to keep up with population growth. But all it really needs is one more subway line the length of YUS and its system will be as large relative to the population as NYC.
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I think it's been a problem going on longer than just the past decade. I mean, you tell me: you get off a plane at Pierson. Where's the direct connection into the city transit system? Right, I get off at Billy Bishop and Union Station is right there, fine. But Pierson's the main airport, where's its connection? That airport's been there -- what, from the '50s, '60s? Longer? But I still can't get to it by subway or rail? There's very large sectors of the city that don't have easy access to the main grid.
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And comparing it to London? London even makes NYC look bad. It opened its first line in 1863, almost a century before Toronto opened its. This was at a time when London was the largest and richest city in the world and head of the world's largest empire, and Toronto wasn't even the largest city of (a yet to be formed) Canada.
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Yes. It was also bombed significantly in the 1940s, something TO never had to contemplate. I mean if we're going to draw in the history of the British Empire as a bonus, we might as well draw WWII in as a demerit.
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As far as the streetcars, they haven't been considered outdated since the mid 20th century. Today, many cities in NA and around the world are building or planning streetcar routes. You mention the drawback of the route being disrupted if one vehicle breaks down or if it snowed but you failed to mention that there are also several advantages, like streetcars last 4 times longer than buses, use less energy, can carry far more people, and provide a smoother, more comfortable ride. And I don't know where the snow comment came from, as streetcars are not stopped by snow. They operate in several winter cities without issue in including Helsinki, and of course St. Petersburg which had the world's largest streetcar network for many years.
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I just know of instances here where these ones have been stopped by snow. How these things are managed in Sweden and Russia I don't know. And all those are nice advantages of the streetcar, but they don't resolve things when these blockages occur. I see them often enough walking down King street to work.
That streetcars use less energy and last longer and are more comfortable are very important problems but secondary to the situation TO is in. That situation being a serious transit crisis (there was a survey of cities not so long ago that rated Toronto the worst in North America -- behind even LA, which doesn't have a subway for earthquake-related reasons). That streetcars carry more people is much more relevant to that crisis, but none of that helps if one of the cars breaks down for whatever reason.
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Besides, buses couldn't even handle the high ridership of some of the streetcar routes in Toronto. The only way to serve them without streetcars would be another east-west subway line (which should have been done years ago) but like you said, that would have the same downfall as streetcars if one vehicle broke down. But how often does that even happen?
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Well I'm not saying we should replace the streetcars with buses -- better something else (Transit City and the LRT, probably). But subway breakdowns occur quite often in my experience. The streetcars I witness largely as a pedestrian. But the Yongue Line last year was absolutely horrible for delays and stoppages for the average commuter day. I'm now on the Bloor Line, which is older but much better and more reliable -- but the Yongue Line had gotten to the point where every second or third trip the train would stop at least once for a significant amount of time in mid-travel. And there must have been ten or more times where either the train had to go out of service, or we came to a stop and the power went out, or most of the line was nixed for 30-40 minutes or more.
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Overall, the TTC has the 3rd highest ridership of any transit agency in NA behind only NYC and Mexico City, despite the TTC only covering the city proper. The bus and streetcar routes have amazing frequency that people in Halifax could only fantasize about. And their service is 24 hour with 24 different routes operating between 1-5am at 1/2 hour frequency or better. Most of our routes don't operate any more frequently than that in the middle of the day...
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Oh, I don't debate the frequency of the buses that arrive -- although I have been waiting on TTC buses on several occasions. Halifax perhaps gets an unjust comparison because I was able to walk almost anywhere I wanted to go.
Which is really my point. Is Halifax service as good as the TTC? No. But it better fits the needs of most of the people of Halifax at present. Or at least it better fit my needs. Halifax can and definitely should upgrade this service. And they should certainly use TO as a model as far as the timetables of its bus services.
But the transportation infrastructure itself? What TO has built in the time given to it? I think you're praising this city a bit too much.
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