With wide open spaces, Canada is a road-tripper’s paradise. That said, once inside city limits, the best way to see the sights with less stress and more interactions with locals—while keeping more loonies in your pocket—is to hop aboard public transit. If you like combining a low carbon footprint with a spirit of adventure, then sample one of our streetcar networks or light-rail systems. With 20 friends sitting all around you, ready to help, you’ll never got lost again.
Toronto Streetcars, ON
The Toronto subway does a fine job of moving commuters and visitors around the nation’s largest city, but to really experience Canada’s Big Apple, you need to see it from street level aboard one of the city’s fine, classic red-and-white streetcars. With 11 separate lines encompassing some 75 km (47 mi) of track that’s built right into the roads (some lines date to the 19th century), it is the largest streetcar network in the North America. Your fare? Three bucks.
Vancouver’s Canada Line, BC
The newest section of Vancouver’s automated SkyTrain light rapid-transit network doesn’t actually spend much time in the sky. The Canada Line—a 19-km (12-mi) mostly underground light-rail line linking downtown, the airport and the city of Richmond—is so popular that it’s spurred its own groupies. Chief among them is author Noam Dolgin, whose new book Canada Line Adventures advises transit fans how to get the most out of bars, restaurants, cafes, walking tours and other public spaces along the route. Pick it up and hop aboard for an authentic urban-green experience.
Calgary’s CTrain, AB
Calgary’s light-rail system is über-practical and efficient, and since the city has some of Canada’s priciest downtown parking, it really is the best way for visitors to get around. Though there are only two routes that converge downtown, the CTrain is North America’s third-busiest light-rail system—behind Toronto’s huge network and another system in Monterrey, Mexico. Rides in the urban core zone along 7 Ave. are free; greens will ride comfortably with the knowledge that it’s effectively run on wind power. By the way, while you’re in Alberta, head up to Edmonton to take a spin in its 20-km (12.4-mi) light-rail system. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll be able to hop a high-speed rail train between the two systems.
Montréal Métro, QC
With more than a million riders a day, the Montréal Métro is Canada’s busiest rapid-transit system and as integral to the city’s sense of self as New York City’s subway. The key difference between those two systems? Public art. With stunning tile mosaics, stained glass installations, sculptures and murals, Montréal’s Metro is a modern-art lover’s underground exhibition. And lots have taken in the culture. According to the Société de transport de Montréal, since 1966 (when the system opened) the Metro has carried some six billion passengers aboard its rubber-tired cars—the equivalent of the world’s total population.
Ottawa’s O-Train, ON
The O-Train isn’t big or particularly fancy—it was built for just $29 million, pocket-change in light-rail quarters, and uses an existing freight-train tracks—but it is popular, and works well, and has a dedicated fan base in the nation’s capital. In just under a decade, the system has already seen almost 10 million riders. Meanwhile, plans are in the works for a $2 to $3 billion state-of-the-art rail expansion that will electrify, add low-floor cars, and take the network right into downtown Ottawa.