Toronto's Metrolinx has exercised a $770 million option to purchase 182 light-rail vehicles from Bombardier Inc., which will grace Toronto streets in the next three to 10 years.

The option is part of a June 2009 contract for 204 revolutionary low-floor cars, new for Toronto. Metrolinx can still opt to buy up to 118 more vehicles.

Similar versions of the streetcars, which have a capacity of more than 280 people, are already used in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Turkey, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Raymond Bachant, North American president of Bombardier Transportation, said the order "solidifies our presence in Ontario and highlights Bombardier's proven state of the art light rail technology."

I guess only one question remains: if a leaf falls in front of a new Bombardier streetcar and there's no one there to pick it up, will it have a "state of the art, light rail" breakdown?