The chart above shows the number of annual riders for every mile of track in each EU and US region. One million annual riders is the equivalent of 2,740 riders a day. EU regions dominate in this metric.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the most annual riders per mile of track, the Eastern EU, and the region with the least, the Southern US, is 7.39 million.
- The Eastern EU has 7.16 times the annual riders per mile of track that the Southern US 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 Eastern EU has more annual riders per mile of track than all subway systems in the US and every other region in the EU 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 mile of track which would raise the Southern EU's riders per mile of track to 3.12 million.
- 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 which would raise the West's riders per mile of track to 1.48 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 Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
- 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.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
The Western EU has the most miles of track by far and the most riders, but comes in a distant second in this metric. The Eastern EU which leads in this metric comes in fourth in number of riders and length of subway track. The Southern US trails all regions in all metrics.
The subway systems with the most annual riders per mile of track in the Midwestern, Southern, and Western US have less riders per mile of track than the systems with the least riders per mile of track in the Eastern and Northern EU.
Sources
Wikipedia. 2019. "List of Metro Systems." Accessed February 24, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems.