I don’t have light rail in my city (one of the top 15 largest US cities). One of my favorite things to do when visiting other cities on vacation is use their public transit. NYC’s MTA is middle to low quality/price compared to other North American cities. I won’t even compare against Europe, because theirs are so much better overall than ours.
For North America, NYC needs to up their game compared to the DC metro, Chicago’s L, or Seattle’s Link. San Diego an Toronto are also both nice, but not nearly as much coverage of the metro areas. Boston also gets high marks even though their system and rolling stock looks absolutely ancient. Philly’s Septa is about on par with NYC’s MTA in my opinion, but the cost of MTA is one of the higher priced services for what you get. Chicago CTA’s $5 full day pass Ventra card is the best value I’ve seen in the country.