The system’s first adventure abroad began three years ago, when it opened stations in the neighboring German city of Weil am Rhein. An existing line, meanwhile, barely crosses into a small section of French territory on its way to serving an outlying Swiss suburb. But the newest addition extends deep into France—including four new stops—creating what must be the most international urban transit network in the world.
It might sound strange, but it makes perfect sense given Basel’s location. Situated in Switzerland’s far northwestern extremity on the banks of the Rhine, it is part of an international metro area of 830,000 people that sprawls naturally along the river’s banks without much regard for political boundaries. This tri-national area itself fits into a larger triangle of cities, as Basel lies within less than 45 miles of the major French and German cities of Mulhouse and Freiburg, with which it shares an airport located on the French side of the border. For Basel, binding this international basin together in an ever-tighter transit system only makes practical, economic sense. [...]
In trying to suture the gash left by the border, Basel is not alone. It’s just the most thorough of several attempts to use transit to knit together communities along the Franco-German-Swiss border. This April, the French city of Strasbourg extended its streetcar system over its Rhine-straddling bridge to the city of Kehl, while the tram system of the Saarbrücken, Germany, has extended to France since 1997.
