When it comes to an efficient and reliable public transport system, no city is stronger than Zurich. As the 2017 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index from the Amsterdam-based consulting firm Arcadis shows, Zurich takes first place in the Profit sub-index, which assesses the economic aspects of a city’s mobility system.

“This global financial centre has a highly affordable and efficient transport system, which is subsequently one of the most popular networks of any city in the overall Index with a highly utilized system,” according to the report. 

Zurich is followed by Prague, Warsaw and Paris in this category. The only two non-European cities in the top ten in the Profit sub-index are Hong Kong in sixth place and Vancouver in eighth.  

Zurich also scores well in the Planet sub-index, coming in seventh place. This looks at cities in terms of their environmental policies, greenhouse gas emissions, efforts to lower transport emissions, as well as bicycle infrastructure and electric vehicle incentives. The German cities of Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin take the top three spots in this category, with all top ten spots taken by European cities.

Switzerland’s largest city scored surprisingly poorly in the People sub-index, coming nearly halfway down the list in 45th place. Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing capture the top five spots in this category, which looks at density of bus and metro stops, hours of operation and digitalization. Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Singapore and London round off the top ten.

In the overall global rankings of 100 cities, Zurich comes in second place, followed by Paris, Seoul and Prague. Geneva is the second highest ranked Swiss city, coming in 31st.