Should there be any doubt that LA belongs among the big 6 urban US cities?

[Crawford]

Barcelona Metro has 103 miles/189 stations. Barcelona suburban rail has 290 miles/109 stations.

Chicago CTA L has 103 miles/145 stations. Chicago suburban rail (Metra) has 488 miles/242 stations, and South Shore Line adds 90 miles/19 stations. Granted, there's overlap.

To me, Chicago clearly has a much larger rail network than Barcelona. Far more stations and track miles. Barcelona has a much better network, with much denser coverage serving a much smaller population, but they don't appear to be similarly sized.

And it isn't like Chicago is some rinky-dink system. The busiest suburban lines are typically three tracks, which is rare globally. The main Metra electric line was four tracks historically, until it got downsized. Chicago has four downtown terminals, two of which are quite sizable. This is a really big legacy system.