Where we are in the world
Lausanne is a Swiss city on the shores of Lake Geneva in the French-speaking portion of the country. On the shores of Lake Geneva, the city stretches up a slope from the lake more than 1,500 feet in elevation – this makes commuting across the city difficult, necessitating public transport systems like Lausanne Metro.
For other maps on transport systems, see posts on the Alaska Marine Highway System and the aerial tram system of Mi Teleferico in La Paz, Bolivia!
See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!
Three key facts about this map
Lausanne is the smallest city in the world with a functioning metro system
At just about 140,000 people and ~15 square miles, Lausanne is the smallest city in the world with a functioning metro system. Despite the small size of the city/population, Lausanne Metro still serves around 33 million passengers per year, on-par with the PATH connecting NYC and New Jersey.
While Lausanne might be the smallest city in the world with a metro, there are plenty of large cities without a metro system such as:
- Dublin, Ireland (metro population of ~1.2 million) – has a tram system, regional rail system and planned metro system
- Edinburgh, Scotland (metro population of ~1 million) – has a tram system and regional rail system
- Bogota, Colombia (metro population of ~8 million) – has a regional rail system and a planned metro system
Lausanne Metro has the only metro system in Switzerland
Despite the highly-developed status of Switzerland across its major cities, Lausanne is the only city with a functioning metro system. This might be a bit disingenuous though – the entire country of Switzerland has a very comprehensive rail system connecting cities called the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB / CFF / FFS). Furthermore, the largest cities in the country have public transport that is not considered to be a “metro system”:
- Zurich (largest city in Switzerland) – has a network of regional rail and tram systems
- Geneva – has a network of regional rail and tram systems
- Basel – has a network of regional rail and tram systems
- **Lausanne** – only metro in Switzerland along with a regional rail system (and a tram system planned – see below!)
- Bern (capital city) – has a network of regional rail and tram system
The major difference between trams and metros are that trams travel largely on street-level and typically does not run at as high of frequencies as metro systems, which largely operate on tracks completely separate (underground or overground)
There is future expansion planned for the metro and a separate tram
Lausanne Metro is planning to expand beyond its current 2 lines to create an M3 line (to complement the existing M1 and M2). The M3 line is planned to extend uphill directly north of the central downtown to a neighborhood called Blécherette but will not be completed until 2030.
Separate to this metro expansion, there is also a new tram line (T1) planned that will run at street-level (as is typical for tram systems) and start from the central train station, Lausanne-Flons, directly west. T1 is expected to open in 2024.
Additional links and sources
- Highlights of Lausanne Metro (link, published in 2021)
- Information on the new tram line (T1) in Lausanne (link, published in 2022)
Have you been on the Lausanne Metro before?
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