Design of London Underground Map

Designed by Harry Beck in 1931, London Underground Map is the classic and is followed by other metro systems of the world.

World Subway Systems Revisited

I found the charts and maps in previous post on the world subway systems are not very effective in communicating the analysis. This diagram try to combine everything in one and include several more subway systems.

The to-scale subway map diagrams are produced by Neil Freeman.

Other Metro Systems in Americas

Metro Systems Statistics

Riderships comparison between major metro systems in the world.


Most of the world's busiest metro system has 8 to 13 lines.

London Underground, the world's first metro system, has the longest subway network in the world.

New York Subway has the highest number of stations among the world metro systems. The difference between the two bars are the number of transfers in each system.

DC Metro possesses longest average line length of 21.4 mile per line in this comparison.

The average distance between stations of DC Metro system is 2km (1.25 mi), which means some areas between two consecutive stations are not covered by a half-mile radius.


This chart shows how many transfer in the system. High number means more interconnections between lines and the system is more web-like.

World's Top-ten Busiest Metro System