NEW YORK CITY - The last time I was here, a couple of years ago, I was in the midst of lauding New York's public transit system over drinks with a few locals when one of them interrupted.

Like me, she'd taken the subway back into Manhattan from the previous night's Yankees game. Standing in the crowded car, she'd felt a persistent tugging at her skirt. Finally, she turned around, stared down the scruffy guy next to her, and the tugging ceased. But when she got off the subway, she noticed a chunk of her skirt was missing - neatly cut out with a pair of scissors, and presumably now sitting alongside other fragments of women's clothing in some sort of shrine.

One gets the sense this sort of thing isn't uncommon in New York's trains. On virtually every subway ride I've taken here, there's been some sort of weirdness - vomiting, aggressive panhandling, shouting matches, you name it. On this latest visit, I witnessed an old man performing a singing comedy routine about Michael Jackson, a drunken Mets fan berating passengers for not surrendering their seats to his equally drunk girlfriend, and (less amusingly) a burn victim wordlessly wandering from car to car, holding up 9/11 posters and soliciting donations.

But though straphanging may be more pleasant in Toronto, I'd trade my hometown's subway for New York's in a heartbeat.

There's a reason New Yorkers brave all manner of unpleasantness (including the security scares that have lately hit both cities) to ride the train: It gets them where they want to go. Not only do its 468 stations cover Manhattan; it hits Brooklyn, Queen's and the Bronx, extensively. For US$2, New Yorkers have the quickest, more practical means of transportation at their disposal - well over 1,000 kilometres worth of tracks that, once you've figured out how to navigate them, cover ground better than most Canadian cities' bus lines.

It's not realistic, of course, to expect anything nearly as extensive in our own cities. Toronto does not have New York City's extremely high population density, which makes driving a more attractive option. History is also a factor: With two private companies operating separate subway systems in New York during the first half of the 20th century, alongside a publicly-owned line that eventually emerged, competition helped fuel rapid development. (The systems were combined under the city's control in 1940.)

But surely there's something in between New York's underground city and the embarrassment that passes for a subway system in Canada's largest metropolis.

With smog enveloping southern Ontario in the stickiest summer in memory, Torontonians have been urged to leave their cars at home and take public transit. Some have. But when a rapidly expanding city is stuck with a grand total of three real subway lines (two of which are parallel and within walking distance of each other), not to mention a system that shuts down each night before the bars close, it's not an overly appealing option.

In the past quarter century, the Greater Toronto Area's population has skyrocketed as once-modest suburbs have emerged into full-fledged cities and developments have sprung up left and right in the core. What does the Toronto Transit Commission have to show for it? The Sheppard subway line - an absurd five-station paean to Mel Lastman that goes nowhere and serves as much purpose as the Springfield Monorail.

There's no way Toronto can afford all the new underground development it needs. But between the city, the province and perhaps even the feds, it should at least have the means to put a major new line cutting diagonally through the city - as well as properly integrate transit systems across the Greater Toronto Area and ensure that the whole thing runs 24 hours.

Yes, it would cost billions. But that's the cost of keeping a big city up to date. The alternative is congestion, lower productivity, and atrocious air quality attacking the entire surrounding area - not to mention a lost opportunity to breathe new life into declining off-route neighbourhoods.

Ordinarily, I'm able to guard against Torontonians' typical New York envy by reminding myself that my city is more livable. But when it comes to getting around town, the Big Apple has us beat.