The London Underground, with its 272 stations and 402km (250 miles) of tracks, is one of the world’s largest transport systems.
However, there are six cities worldwide that have even larger underground train networks.
The biggest metro system in the world has an impressive 472 stations spread over 394km (244 miles), while the second largest carries 10 million passengers daily, MyLondon reports.
Here are the six cities with bigger Underground systems than London.
6. Madrid Metro, Spain
Madrid, the capital of Spain, has more metro train stations than London, but it’s slightly shorter in length.
It has 302 stations, compared to London’s 272, but it’s only 293km (182 miles) long.
Madrid’s Metro is also used much less frequently than London’s – it only had 600 million passengers in 2018, while the Tube sees more than a billion people yearly.
5. Paris Metro, France
Paris’ Metro, the world’s fifth oldest subway system, was founded in 1900, about 40 years after London’s Underground.
It has 302 stations, the same as Madrid’s, but is only 225 kilometres long – nearly 100 miles shorter than the Tube.
The Paris Metro has 16 lines, compared to London’s 11, and they’re numbered instead of named.
4. Shanghai Metro, China
Shanghai, a global finance hub in China, boasts the world’s fourth largest metro system – and the busiest.
The Shanghai Metro serves 3.8 billion passengers a year, with a record day in 2019 seeing 13 million riders.
It has a whopping 381 stations – over 100 more than the Tube – and is also more than 300km longer with 743 km of track.
3. Beijing Subway, China
Two of the world’s biggest underground systems are in China. The sprawling Chinese capital, Beijing, is served by an underground rail system that’s 727 km long with 428 stations.
The Beijing Subway, which opened in 1971, is more than a century younger than the Tube.
Until 2002, it only had two lines. Now it has 24 lines, but still struggles to meet the needs of the 3.85 billion passengers that use the subway every year – that’s a staggering 10.5 million every day.
2. New York City Subway, USA
New York’s famous Subway is the world’s most extensive metro system, with a whopping 472 stations.
It opened in 1904 and operates across 36 lines with 28 different services.
1. Seoul Metro, South Korea
Seoul Metro in South Korea is one of the busiest in the world with 1.9 billion annual passengers.
The underground train system, called the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, has 22 lines with a massive 728 stations.
