The chart above shows the number of subway stations per mile of track in each region. Unsurprisingly, the Northeast has the highest density of stations in its subway systems.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the most subway stations per mile of track, the Northeast, and the region with the least, the West, is 0.96.
- The Northeast has 2.99 times the subway stations per mile of track that the West does.
- The Northeast has a higher station density than any subway system outside of the Northeast.
- Conversely, the West has a lower station density than any subway system outside of the Western US.
Caveats
- Data is from 2017.
- Hawaii is currently working on building a subway system for Honolulu which is slated to have 1.05 stations for every mile of track. This would raise the West's station density to 0.56 stations for every mile.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
Details
The Northeast has the most stations by far, the most track, and has the most stations per mile of track. The West has the least number of stations and the least number of stations per mile of track but ranks second when it comes to miles of subway track. The South comes in last in miles of track but ranks third in number of stations and stations per mile of track.
The Midwest's subway system with the lowest station density, Cleveland's RTA Rapid Transit Line, has more stations per mile than the subways with the highest station density in the South (Miami's Metrorail) and the West (Los Angeles' Metro Rail).
Sources
Wikipedia. 2019. "List of Metro Systems." Accessed February 24, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems.