How car-loving American cities fell so far behind their global peers on public transit

With most major European cities well-served by trains and buses, bringing US transit up to par would cost $4.6tn The only train station in Houston, the US’s fourth-largest city and one of the fastest-growing conurbations in the country, is a diminished, morose sight. Intercity trains arrive at this squat, shed-like Amtrak building, which cringes in the shadows of roaring highways, just three times a week. That such a meager train station could ostensibly serve a metropolitan area of about 7 m...

By Oliver Milman in Houston