The Tokyo Subway is the most highly used rapid transit system in the world.
The Seoul Subway is the world's second busiest and the busiest rapid transit system in mainland Asia.
The Moscow Metro is the busiest system in Europe and is known for its deep, beautifully decorated stations.
The Beijing Subway is the fourth busiest system in the world and the busiest in China.
The Shanghai Metro is the fifth busiest system in the world.
The Guangzhou Metro is the sixth busiest system in the world.
The New York City Subway is the busiest in the Americas and has more stations than any other, with 468 (or 421 counting transfer stations once) stations.
The Paris Métro is the busiest system in the European Union and is the world's busiest rubber-tyred metro.
The Hong Kong MTR is the nineth busiest system in the world and fourth in China.
The Mexico City Metro is the busiest metro system in Latin America and the second busiest in the Americas, and is known for the archaeology and pictographs in its stations.
The London Underground, popularly known as the "Tube," is the oldest system in the world, operating since 1863.
The most-used metro systems in terms of passenger rides per year:
^The figure is derived from ridership statistics of the two subway operators in Tokyo. The Tokyo Metro and the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation's Toei Subway constitute only 22% of the 14.6 billion metropolitan railway ridership in Greater Tokyo (MLIT Yearly Statistics). Compared to European or North American systems, Japanese rapid transit systems are generally neither thought of as metros nor as completely subterranean "subways" complicating whether only using the municipal subway statistic is accurate when comparing with other Metros around the world. In addition, when one considers intracity lines of JR East and private railway companies, Greater Tokyo (130 lines) has higher daily ridership than any other metropolitan area in the world with 14.6 billion passengers annually.
^The Osaka Municipal Subway has only a minority share of all metropolitan railway ridership in Greater Osaka constituting only 17.6% of Greater Osaka's 4.745 billion rail passengers annually in 2010. If you include the Kobe and Kyoto subways the subway still only represents 22% of all rail travel in the Greater Osaka area with 1065.8 million passengers yearly (MLIT Yearly Statistics). Compared to European or North American systems, Japanese rapid transit systems are generally neither thought of as metros nor as completely subterranean "subways" complicating whether only using the municipal subway statistic is accurate when comparing with other Metros around the world. Greater Osaka's 4.745 billion annual rail passengers is the 2nd highest in the world after Tokyo.
^ abcRidership is based on unlinked passenger trips (i.e. a transfer between two lines counts as two trips, transferring between three lines counts as three trips, etc.).
^The Nagoya Municipal Subway has only a minority share of all metropolitan railway ridership in Greater Nagoya constituting only 38% of Greater Nagoya's 1.095 billion rail passengers annually in 2010 (MLIT Yearly Statistics). Compared to European or North American systems, Japanese rapid transit systems are generally neither thought of as metros nor as completely subterranean "subways" complicating whether only using the municipal subway statistic is accurate when comparing with other Metros around the world.
^ abcdefghiAll American Public Transportation Association (APTA) figures are derived from unlinked transit passenger trips (i.e. a transfer between two lines counts as two passenger trips, transferring twice counts as three trips, etc.).
^[1] Summation of Monthly Total of ridership of MTR Lines, Airport Express and Cross-boundary services from Jan 2011 to Dec 2011. Retrieved on 2012-03-17.
^Ridership is based on unlinked passenger trips (i.e. a transfer between two lines counts as two trips, transferring between three lines counts as three trips, etc.)
Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Metro systems by annual passenger rides.
Read more