A metro for the whole region

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, an automatic underground network serves Geneva and its whole cross-border region, from the Pays de Gex to the foot of the Salève, together with the Léman Express. Trains come every few minutes, quietly and reliably, and most people can reach a station within a short walk. Above ground, the streets once taken by trams, buses and cars have become places for people, trees and bicycles.

The tram rails were gone too, replaced by a new metro station entrance, beautifully decorated. Apparently, the underground was the only necessary public transport in this future Geneva.Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 “2061”

Geneva today

• The Grand Council has voted a credit of 30 million francs for the preliminary studies, and a popular vote is foreseen. The project was not prioritised in the federal expert report “Transports 2045”, because no preliminary studies were available at the time (same source).
• Among the main challenges identified are groundwater, excavated material, the crossing of the lake, and the dense network of existing underground pipes and cables in the city centre (same source).

Where it is already done

• The Léman Express opened in December 2019 with a new 16 km link between Cornavin and Annemasse, creating one of the largest cross-border rail networks in Europe, with 45 stations for a region of nearly a million people. It reached its four-year target of 50,000 passengers a day after only two years, and passed 80,000 a day in autumn 2024.
• Lausanne voted 62% in favour of an automatic metro in 2002, the first in a Swiss city, despite much scepticism. Built in four years and opened in 2008, the M2 was designed for 25 million passengers a year and carried 31 million ten years later, while car traffic in the city centre fell by 13%.

A Pattern Language

Related patterns from the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander and colleagues (1977), a classic of architecture and town planning.

• 16 Web of Public Transportation: Alexander and his colleagues argue that public transport only works as a connected web, in which every line meets the others at interchanges, so that people can travel from anywhere to anywhere without a car.

How far along

Engineering and scale The principle works, but it needs investment, time or better technology.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Geneva votes on the Jura–Léman–Salève underground line, planned together with the French authorities.
2. 2031Construction is under way, and the Léman Express runs more often, with new stations on both sides of the border.
3. 2041The first underground line opens, linking the Pays de Gex, CERN, the airport, the international organisations, the city centre, Carouge and Saint-Julien.
4. 2051New lines complete the network; trams give way where they cause the most problems, and some offices move to the outskirts, closer to where people live.
5. 2061As Verity sees it at the Rond-point de Plainpalais, the tram rails are gone and the underground is the only public transport the city needs.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• How can an underground network grow without overcrowding the city centre, for example by turning some city-centre offices into homes and building new offices in the outskirts?
• Why does it take as long today to build a few dozen kilometres of railway in a city as it took to build thousands of kilometres across Canada in the 1880s, and how can that change?
• How can the tunnels avoid CERN’s accelerator tunnels, the groundwater and the existing underground networks of the city centre?

Sources

1. Council of State of Geneva: Liaison Jura – Léman – Salève, perimeter and characteristics of the future underground light rail, press briefing (November 2025, in French)
2. Léman Express: 5 ans de succès et nouvelle liaison pour Genève-Aéroport et Vernier, press release (June 2025, in French)
3. Le Temps, via CITraP Vaud: Le M2 fait sa mue après dix ans (September 2018, in French)

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