The chart above shows the number of annual riders for every kilometer of track in each EU region. One million annual riders is the equivalent of 2,740 riders a day. The Eastern EU is the only region with over 4 million annual riders for every kilometer of subway track.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the most annual riders per kilometer of track, the Eastern EU, and the region with the least, the Northern EU, is 2.38 million.
- The Eastern EU has 1.80 times the annual riders per kilometer of track that the Northern EU 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.
- The Eastern EU has more annual riders per kilometer of track than any subway system in any other region except for the Milan, Lyon, and Paris Metros.
Caveats
- Data is from 2017.
- 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 which would raise the Southern EU's riders per kilometer of track to 3.12 million.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
The Western EU has the most kilometers of track by far and the most riders, but comes in second in this metric. The Eastern EU which leads in this metric comes in third in number of riders and length of subway track. The Northern EU trails all regions in all metrics.
The Eastern EU has the widest range in riders per kilometer of track with a low of 2.24 million riders per kilometer of track in Bulgaria's Sofia Metro to a high of 10.75 in Hungary's Budapest Metro. The Northern EU has the narrowest range in riders per kilometer of track with a low of 1.93 in Finland's Helsinki Metro to a high of 3.27 in Sweden's Stockholm Metro.
Sources
Wikipedia. 2019. "List of Metro Systems." Accessed February 24, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems.