The linked story below about where and when we will see the new streetcars from Bombardier may make your hair stand on end. Yes, the streetcars are coming, finally, but the revelation that they were built to an appallingly low level of quality is a municipal scandal. Toronto has paid a high price over the years for its dreamy notion of itself as streetcar city. It is a mode of transportation that the world has left behind and for good reason. But we have saddled yet another generation here with these cumbersome, unreliable vehicles with their inflexible routing. It can sensibly be argued that the TTC has to have two transit systems — the streetcars and the buses needed to replace the streetcars. Globe and Mail
