This policy brief makes evident the positive impacts of the introduction of an underground metro network in the city of Porto in terms of a compact and connected urban development. Porto shows a structural population decrease and an economic restructuring process towards a tourism-oriented services economy. Building on local knowledge and the stakeholders’ experience in implementing this project, this brief reveals the importance of integrated transport systems to make cities denser and improve territorial and socio-economic cohesion. The key lesson learnt is that core cities, such as Porto, must be contextualized as the centres of their metropolitan areas and interwoven into a complex set of interactions allowed by the supra-municipal (regional) design of a metro network. The brief offers a set of policy recommendations on enabling mechanisms for an effective metro network delivery, while dealing with territorial imbalances and social segregation in urban shrinkage contexts.

3S RECIPE is part of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe's ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures Call (ENSUF). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857160.