Small Cities, Big Transit

Turns Out You Don't Have to Be Chicago-Sized to Have Rail Rapid Transit

One of the art-filled stations of the métro in the art-filled Swiss city of Lausanne, pop. 139,000.

Several times in the last few years, I’ve arrived in a relatively small European city, and been shocked to find the sign for a metro—an underground urban rail system—welcoming me outside the train station.

The first time was in Brescia, in northern Italy. …