Boston vs Toronto — Which City has Better Transit?

Boston and Toronto are two of North America's greatest cities, but how do their rail transit systems stack up? Find out in the latest edition of Transit Battle!

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[maxpowr]

The problem with Boston and MA at-large, is that far too many residents lost ambition to dream large on infrastructure after The Big Dig. It needs to change because the metro area grew a bunch in the 15ish years after that; basically reached capacity and is now shrinking. More housing and more transit is needed today.

[oleunis]

boston vs toronto - which city has more slow zones🤔

[shaye]

The Boston green line extension + community path wombo combo has been life changing

[aquaticko]

Boston is just begging for some actual ambition in its transit plans. The only city with land use better suited to transit is New York, and obviously, the scope of transit is on wildly different scales between the two of them. The Red-Blue connector, regional rail plans, and the North-South Rail Link all should've been built DECADES ago.

[JhonnyCooked]

Transit battle ideas:
- Bangkok vs Jakarta (two Southeast Asian megacities with up and coming rapid transit systems)
- São Paulo vs Buenos Aires (or Mexico City)
- Sydney vs Melbourne
- Hong Kong vs Singapore (two world renowned transit systems in city-states)
- Tokyo vs Seoul
- Tokyo vs Osaka

[thecorsair]

As a Torontonian who just moved to Boston, this is a fantastically timed video

[samuelbock]

Boston REALLY needs the North-South Rail Link (commuter tunnel) and an overhaul (electrification, QoL improvements, increased frequency) to it’s Commuter Rail

[AWildKomodoGaming]

I have been on every Toronto bus and I think that busses should have been their own category.

[djplong]

I’ve been riding the MBTA since 1971 and I’ve seen the triumphs and failures of that system. There are two things that have held back the MBTA. First is a “not invented here” syndrome. They are NOT good at taking cues from other systems. Example: Walk-through trains? They say they can’t work in Boston because of old tunnels and sharp turns - yet Dublin, a city that was settled over a millennium before Boston, didn’t let that get in the way (nor have other European cities). Corruption and costs are the other roadblock. The MBTA used to be known as “Mister Bulger’s Transportation Authority” for the State Senate President (dubbed a “corrupt midget” by one judge) whose brother was an FBI-10-Most-Wanted mobster.

These things collided to make the reason that Boston can’t come into the 21st Century. The North South Rail Link project would connect North and South Stations, allow through-running, creating a regional rail system of superb quality and, with electrification, could give you the equivalent of 12 new rapid transit lines for the cost of a couple of 2nd Avenue Subway stations. Transportation experts show that the costs are feasible but the MBTA makes it’s own study that a child could poke holes in to say it’s too expensive - and since the Big Dig scared everyone with it’s costs 20+ years ago, nothing happens in Boston despite the fact that we can see what it did for Philadelphia.

They don’t want to string wire so we get Yet Another New Tech Toy in battery trains now in the offing. They’ve put off the Blue Line extension to Lynn for DECADES. They can’t even dig a couple hundred meters of tunnel to connect the only two lines that don’t have an interchange (Red & Blue) without claiming it will cost more than the entire system - even though half the tunnel was dug 100 years ago.

I don’t know what kind of brain parasite has infected the MBTA but it’s certainly multi-generational and has kept the MBTA as the number one enemy of itself.

[bosssauce]

3-1 lead for Toronto. We'll blow this one too

[Koopzilla]

One of the big positives towards Boston's regional rail that comes with it's extensiveness is that almost every place of significant residence in a 50mi radius of the city isn't more than 5 miles from a rail station. It's a large part of the reason we don't have many commuter coach buses like most other cities. The only ones remaining are private companies that serve New Hampshire and the South Coast since they don't have direct rail, but even then the South Coast bus (Dattco to Fall River/New Bedford) is being eliminated since it's getting rail.

[forrestgumpfan]

I lived in Boston for years, recently went back to visit, and I lived in Toronto for two years and still live in the GTA. Toronto, in my opinion, has better transit and it is much better maintained. Some of Boston's trains screech and many on the red line move too slowly.

[davidbalcon]

We Ontarians/Torontonians often criticize our provincial government (personified by our Premier, brother of our notorious former mayor) but I give Ford credit for recognizing the critical importance of a public transit infrastructure to serve the growing and sprawling GTA. His vastly increased spending on GO Transit and in support of the municipal transit operators and Metrolinx acknowledges this part of the province should not be designed around the automobile as most all of North America has since the end of WW2. Cudos were deserved…along with his distancing from the federal party!

[IndigoSolution]

As a resident of the city of Boston who has been suffering the worst of the past few years, I already know the answer is Toronto. The real question are the gritty details on "Why".

[joermnyc]

Been to both, Toronto blew me away, Boston reminded me of what we have in NY except for the Green Line, that was pretty cool. Boston does need to connect North and South Stations, that would change the region.

[dukezap]

In 10 years I see Toronto having the best Transit in North America by a long shot

[maxpowr]

Toronto has a stop named Old Cummer. Clearly wins on that alone. TTC: Ride the Rocket!

[jesperwillems_]

9:30 its so interesting to me that you mention you find the GO trains to look almost like something you could find in Europe, just as I, a European, was thinking "why are those trains so massive and square, something like that would never fly in Europe"

[mistafishy]

The communities surrounding Boston, especially to the west, are highly resistant to the change necessary for the system to become more modern. The state legislature also appeases residents outside the region and is overly focused on costs especially following the Big Dig. Our legislatures, state and local, just lacks the vision and risk-taking capacity that Boston and all its surrounding communities desperately needs.Missed opportunities.

[Fanw]

Thank you for an extremely interesting video.. I was surprised that you did not have separate 'rounds' for firstly buses, and secondly future developments.
On my judge's score card (sitting safely thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic) I made it 4-1 to Toronto . The only round Boston won was trams/streetcars!