This list of metro systems includes electrified rapid transit train systems worldwide. In some parts of the world, metro systems are referred to as subways, undergrounds, tubes, mass rapid transit (MRT), metrô or U-Bahn. since 21 December 2025,[update]Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 211 cities in 63 countries operate 935 metro lines.
The London Underground first opened as an underground railway in 1863 and its first electrified underground line, the City and South London Railway, opened in 1890,[1] making it the world's first deep-level electric metro system.[2] The Budapest Millennium Underground Railway, which opened in 1896, was the world's first electric underground railway specifically designed for urban transportation and is still in operation today.[3]Template:Isbn? The Beijing Subway is both the world's longest metro network at Script error: No such module "convert". and the busiest with the highest annual ridership reaching approximately 2.83 billion passenger trips.[4][5] The Beijing Subway has the greatest number of stations, with 424. since 2024,[update]Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". the country with the most metro systems is China, with 54 in operation, including 11 of the 12 longest networks in the world.
The International Association of Public Transport (Script error: No such module "Lang"., or UITP) defines metro systems as urban passenger transport systems, "operated on their own right of way and segregated from general road and pedestrian traffic".[6][7] The terms heavy rail (mainly in North America) and heavy urban rail are essentially synonymous with the term "metro".[8][9][10] Heavy rail systems are also specifically defined as an "electric railway".[8][9]
In contrast to commuter rail or light rail, metro systems are primarily used for transport within a city, and have higher service frequencies and substantially higher passenger volume capacities. Most metro systems do not share tracks with freight trains or inter-city rail services. It is not relevant whether the system runs on steel wheels or rubber tyres, or if the power supply is from a third rail or overhead line.
The name of the system is not a criterion for inclusion or exclusion. Some cities use "metro" as a brand name for a transit line with no component of rapid transit whatsoever. Similarly, there are systems branded "light rail" that meet every criterion for being a rapid transit system. Some systems also incorporate light metro or light rail lines as part of the larger system under a common name. These are listed, but the light rail lines are not counted in the provided network data.
Certain transit networks may match the service standards of metro systems, but reach far out of the city and are sometimes known as S-Bahn, suburban, regional or commuter rail. These are not included in this list. Neither are funicular systems, or people movers, such as amusement park, ski resort and airport transport systems.
This list counts metros separately when multiple metros in one city or metropolitan area have separate owners or operating companies. This list expressly does not aim at representing the size and scope of the total rapid transit network of a certain city or metropolitan area. The data in this list should not be used to infer the size of a city's, region's, or country's urban rail transit systems, or to establish a ranking.
Legend
File:World Metro systems.svgCountries with at least one metro system: <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
The year the metro system was opened for commercial service at metro standards. In other words, parts of the system may be older, but as parts of a former light rail or commuter rail network, so the year that the system obtained metro standards (most notably electrification) is the one listed.
Year of last expansion
The last time the system length or number of stations in the metro system was expanded.
Stations
The number of stations in the metro network, with stations connected by transfer counted as one.
System length
The system length of a metro network is the sum of the lengths of all routes in the rail network in kilometers or miles. Each route is counted only once, regardless of how many lines pass over it, and regardless of whether it is single-track or multi-track, single carriageway or dual carriageway.
Ridership
The number of unique journeys on the metro system every year. There is a major discrepancy between the ridership figures: some metro systems count transferring between lines as multiple journeys, but others do not. Numbers may also be counted via different methods – faregates/turnstiles or light barriers at entrances or vehicle doors being the most common but far from the only ones.
The following is a list of new worldwide metro systems that are currently actively under construction. In some cases it is not clear if the system will be considered a full metro system once it begins operational service. Only metro systems under construction are listed where there are no metro systems currently in operation in the same city.
The countries of Ivory Coast, Israel, and Serbia are currently constructing their first ever metro systems.
↑Vienna's Metropolitan Railway (Wiener Stadtbahn) first opened for service in 1898, operating steam locomotive trains on mostly elevated or underground ROWs. From 1976 onwards, part of it was integrated into the newly established Vienna U-Bahn system (lines U4 and U6), operating as a modern metro.
↑The Beijing Subway's first line began trial operations on 1 October 1969. It opened to revenue service under trial operations on 15 January 1971. Initially, only members of the public with credential letters from their work units could purchase tickets, but this restriction was removed on 27 December 1972. The subway line passed its final inspections and ended trial operations on 15 September 1981. During the trial operations period, annual ridership rose from 8.28 million in 1971 to 55.2 million in 1980. See the history section of the Beijing Subway for details and references.
↑Opening of metro Line 1 and not light rail Line 3, which opened in 2002.
↑ abcdeFirst line of Foshan Metro, the Guangfo Line, serves two cities – Foshan and Guangzhou. The Guangfo Line is operated by Guangzhou Metro and as such is included in Guangzhou's tally.
↑The first MTR route to offer metro service was the Modified Initial System in 1979, which consists of portions of the later Tsuen Wan Line and Kwun Tong Line. Though the eventual East Rail Line opened as a conventional railway in 1910, it did not offer metro service until at least in 1982 when it was electrified.
↑This figure excludes Maglev line and Jinshan Railway, all of which often included in Shanghai Metro maps but not considered part of the system.
↑As of 28 December 2025, there are 441 stations if the 79 interchange stations (i.e. different sets of platforms) are counted multiple times, while there are 332 stations if they are counted as one station.
↑The lengths of the Noida Metro and Gurgaon Metro are not counted with the Delhi Metro. If they were counted, the total length of the three systems would be Template:Cvt.
↑The Template:Cvt Line 1 of Karaj Metro (part of line 5 of Tehran metro) is a commuter rail line, and so is not included in the statistics here. If Line 1 is included, there would be 11 stations.
↑ abThere are 132 stations if interchange stations are counted once, and 147 stations if they are counted multiple times. The Template:Cvt Line 5 of the Tehran Metro is a commuter rail line, and so is not included in the statistics here – only metro Lines 1–4 and 6–7 are. If Line 5 is included, the total length of the system would be Template:Cvt, and there would be 143 unique stations, and 160 total stations.
↑Lines 1, 6, and 11 only, not line 2, which is commuter rail.
↑The Seoul Subway Lines 1–9 and Seoul Light Rapid Transit is actually operated by several different operators – Seoul Metro and Seoul Metro Line 9 Corporation (SLM9), plus through-operation services from Korail – but because all of these lines are owned by the City Government of Seoul, here in the table they are counted together as one system.
↑ abcSeoul's Metropolitan Subway system can also be viewed as a comprehensive metro network made up of multiple owned/operated metro systems. If viewed as such, the combined route length of Seoul's comprehensive metro-standards network would be Template:Cvt, with 656 stations of 24 lines.
"Operación": route length in active revenue and non-revenue service
"Servicio": route length in active revenue service
"Vuelta": track length in active revenue service
"Total": all track length in active revenue, maintenance and non-revenue service
System length value derived from "RED Servicio" or net route length in active revenue service.
↑Some sections of the Rotterdam Metro (portions of Lines A, B, E) have some level crossings (with priority) and so could therefore be considered "light rail" instead of "metro".
↑Blue Line only. Red Line is a heavy rail commuter route.
↑ abThese systems have similarities to light rail systems, because of the existence of a few road level crossings, but are listed since they are almost entirely separated from roads.
↑The first underground portion was opened in 1928, but that was a tram line. One surface line has origins from 1898. System opened as a full Metro in 1966.
↑Combined lengths of the Red, Green, and Gold lines.
↑TMB-operated lines L1–L5 and L9–L11 only. FGC-operated lines L6-L8 share track with other FGC commuter lines, and thus do not qualify as metro-standards lines.
↑CTB-owned and "Metro Bilbao S.A."-operated line 1 and Line 2 only.
↑The first line, later known as Green Line, was opened by stages during the 1950s, partly converting to metro operations prior rapid tram alignments. These included the oldest tunnel, built in 1933, which name (Tunnelbana) and symbol were bequeathed to the new system.
↑The Lausanne Metro has two lines: Line M1 is light rail, while Line M2 is rapid transit. The stats listed are for Line M2 only.
↑London's Metropolitan Railway first opened for service in 1863, operating steam locomotive trains in cut and cover tunnels. It began operating as a modern metro when electric-propulsion trains began operating on the system's first deep-level tube line in 1890.
↑The originally-elevated Orange Line opened in 1901, sharing the Tremont Street Subway that had opened in 1897 as an underground streetcar tunnel (for the light railGreen Line).
↑Dated from the opening of the South Side Elevated on 6 June 1892. The "L" was first electrified in 1895 when the Metropolitan West Side Elevated opened. The entire system was unified and electrified in 1897 with the construction of the Union Loop.
↑This figure comes from the sum of the following figures from the accompanying reference (i.e. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".): 35.8 miles of elevated route, 35.0 miles at grade level, 20.6 miles on embankments, and 11.4 miles of subway.
↑ abRapid transitB and D lines only. All other L.A. Metro Rail lines are light rail, and are not included here.
↑This was the date of the last extension to the B Line in the rapid transit portion of Los Angeles' Metro Rail.
↑First regular elevated railway service, originally cable hauled, began in 1868. Elevateds converted to steam power in 1870, electrified by 1903. The first section of electrified subway opened in 1904.
↑While the line opened as a railroad in 1860, it was not until 1925 that rapid transit equipment would be operated here.
↑The last completely new stations were the current Newark and Harrison stations, which respectively replaced the Park Place and Harrison stations on a different alignment in 1937. According to PATH, its newest station is World Trade Center, which was completed in 2015 but replaced a previous station on the same site.
↑47 rapid transit stations, plus three additional stations (two eBART and one AGT) within the system.
↑This figure excludes the eBART extension from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Antioch (9.2 miles) and the "BART to Oakland International Airport (OAK) elevated guideway" (3.2 miles).
↑Statistics presented here include the Los Teques Metro which functions as effectively a subsidiary and extension of the Caracas Metro.
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Under construction notes
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Ridership notes
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↑Figure extrapolated from 2,75,000 average daily ridership figures over an year as mentioned in the cited report
the ridership includes "Domestic Service", "Airport Express" and "Cross-boundary";
"Intercity, Light Rail & Bus" and "High Speed Rail (HSR)" are excluded from the counts.
↑Does not include ridership on the RER/Transilien (1,365 million in 2024) and the Tramways (380 million).
↑This ridership figure is the sum of the two "Μετρό" figures (Γ1 line, or "Ηλεκτρικός", formerly ran by IASA and Γ2–Γ3 lines, formerly ran by AMEL) from the OAΣA's 2018 Activity Report.
↑Total ridership figures from April 2023 to March 2024
↑Figure extrapolated from 40,000 average daily ridership figures over an year as mentioned in the cited report
↑Figure extrapolated from 4,40,000 average daily ridership figures over an year as mentioned in the cited report
↑Figure extrapolated from 73,476 average daily ridership figures over an year as mentioned in the cited report
↑Figure extrapolated from a sum of average daily ridership figures of lines 1 (3,54,610), 2A & 7 (1,80,726.37) over an year as mentioned in the cited reports
↑Figure extrapolated from 110,000 average daily ridership figures over an year as mentioned in the cited report
↑ abcdefghijklmnopCompared 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. As example 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). 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 also 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. Including the municipal subway systems in both Kobe and Kyoto, the result still only comprises 22% of all rail travel in the Greater Osaka area with 1065.8 million passengers yearly (MLIT Yearly Statistics). For Greater Nagoya, 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). For a complete list of urban rail systems in Japan with ridership statistics, see List of urban rail systems in Japan.
↑This figure counts only gate-passers, so it only includes Seoul Metro and Seoul Subway Line 9 riders. Other lines that function as separate systems within the greater Seoul urban rail network are excluded.
↑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.).
↑This ridership figure is the sum of the total annual trips (Script error: No such module "Lang"., boarding and transfer passengers) on the two sections (Phase 1 and Phase 2) of the line, from the accompanying reference.
↑This figure is the sum of the passenger ridership on the two LRTA lines, L1 and L2, from the accompanying reference; it is based on unlinked passenger trips (i.e. a transfer between two lines counts as two trips, etc.).
↑Figure extrapolated from 3,243,000 average daily ridership.
↑Figure extrapolated from 1 265 900 average daily boardings.
↑Ridership figure is for rapid transit Line M2 only; ridership on the light rail M1 line is excluded.
↑As for the size the system reached by the end of 2017, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". The Montmartre funicular is considered to be part of the metro system, within which is represented by a 303rd fictive station "Funiculaire".
As for the section opened after the end of 2017, see Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
↑Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". The Athens Metro incorporates the steam-powered Athens–Piraeus Railway (SAP, now Line 1), which opened on 27 February 1869. The railway's first tunnel section, between Template:Stl and Template:Stl, opened on 17 May 1895, and SAP completed the electrification of the line on 16 September 1904.
↑As for the size the system reached by the end of 2020, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
As for the section opened after the end of 2020, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
↑ abAs for the size the system reached by the end of 2018, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". The Montjuïc Funicular, despite being considered to be part of the metro system, is excluded.
As for the latest extension, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
↑ abScript error: No such module "citation/CS1". Simply sum the lengths and number of stations on the operational lines to obtain the totals for the Ankara Metro.
↑As for the latest length, please refer to website of public company https://www.metro.istanbul/en/Template:Webarchive
As for the size the system reached by the end of 2021, see Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
As for the latest extension, see Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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