Pedantic correction: Toronto streetcars and subways are actually slightly wider than standard gauge. The rest of your point is unaffected. The streetcars are n

Pedantic correction: Toronto streetcars and subways are actually slightly wider than standard gauge. The rest of your point is unaffected. The streetcars are not discussed much in the article, but they may be a large part of both Toronto's moderate transit success and its slowness to adopt real light rail transit. Streetcars are seen as similar to buses but a bit faster, more comfortable and more reliable. Which suits them well for the busy downtown routes. But plans for suburban LRT routes have been dismissed as "glorified streetcars", even though they would be much faster due to less frequent stops and more signal priority. Since relatively slow downtown streetcars are the only surface rail people know about, they don't get excited about LRT.