EU and US States by Annual Riders per Mile of Subway Track

Apr 30, 2019
Annual Riders per Mile of Track in EU and US States

The chart above shows the number of annual riders for every mile of track in each state.  One million annual riders is the equivalent of 2,740 riders a day.  EU states tend to pack in more riders for every unit of track than US states do.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the most annual riders per mile of track, Hungary, and the state with the least (that has a subway system), Ohio, is 17.01 million.
  • Hungary has 55.87 times the annual riders per mile of track that Ohio does.
  • Italy has seven subway systems, France has six, the United Kingdom and Germany each have four, Spain has three, and the Netherlands has two, all other states have one.  Pennsylvania and California have two subway systems, New York has three, all other states have one.
  • The median number of annual riders per mile of track in the EU states that have a subway is 5.27 million (3.27 million for every kilometer) and the mean 6.43 million (4.00 million for every kilometer).
  • The median number of annual riders per mile of track in the US states that have a subway is 1.69 million (1.05 million for every kilometer) and the mean 2.22 million (1.38 million for every kilometer).
  • The median number of annual riders per mile of track in the EU and US states that have a subway is 4.40 million (2.74 million for every kilometer) and the mean 4.87 million (3.03 million for every kilometer).

Caveats

  • Data is from 2017.
  • Hawaii is currently working on building a subway system for Honolulu which is expected to have 2.12 million annual riders per mile of track.
  • Greece is currently working on building a subway system for Thessaloniki which is expected to have 3.70 million annual riders per kilometer of track.
  • All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.

Details

The five subway stations with the most annual riders per unit of length of track are all in the EU.  The five stations with the least annual riders per unit of length of track are all in the US.  Only one US state, New York, ranks in the top ten.  Conversely, only one EU state, the Netherlands, ranks in the bottom ten.

This metric shows how heavily used subway systems are by providing an average number of riders for every unit of length of track in the system.  Hungary's Budapest Metro has the most annual riders per length of track in the EU and the US.  New York's New York City Subway has the highest in the US and eighth highest in the EU and US.  On the other end, Ohio's RTA Rapid Transit Red Line has the least annual riders per length of track in both the EU and the US.  The United Kingdom's Tyne and Wear Metro has the lowest in the EU and is fifth from last in both the EU and the US.

Sources

Wikipedia.  2019.  "List of Metro Systems."  Accessed February 24, 2019.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems.