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THE world's first metro, now the world's oldest system, is the London Underground in England, which is more commonly known as the Tube, which was opened in 1863.
At 402 kilometers in length the London Underground is also the world's second longest metro system.
Visit our page - Lines And Stations Of The London Underground - to read more about this system.
THE world's longest metro system is the Shanghai Metro in China at 434 kilometers long. The system also incorporates the world's only tourist tunnel, the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, which travels under the city's Huangpu River between East Nanjing Road station and Pudong station.
The 647 meter long tunnel is encased in a glass capsule which houses a system of strobe lighting which throws vivid, psychedelic patterns upon the tunnel walls.
Visit our page - Lines and Stations of the Shanghai Metro - to read more about this system.
THE metro system with the most number of stations in the world is the New York City Subway in U.S.A, with four hundred and twenty two stations.
Visit our page - Lines and Stations of the New York City Subway - to read more about this system.
THE country with the highest number of metro systems in the world is the USA with subway systems situated in at thirty two cities.
THE smallest city in the world to have a rapid transit metro is Lausanne in Switzerland. Lausanne is just 41.37 square kilometers in size and it's fifteen kilometer long Metro Lausanne consists of two lines and twenty eight stations.
THE world's smallest metro system is the 3.8 km long Metropolitana di Catania situated on the Italian island of Sicily which consists of just one line and six stations.
THE world's first metro system to be built solely for the use of religious pilgrims is the 18.1 kilometer long Al Mashaaer Al Muqaddassah Metro, which opened in November 2010 in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.
THE world's busiest metro system, in terms of passenger number, is Tokyo's Toei Subway with eight million passengers a day, or 3.16 billion a year.
THE metro system with the highest number of lines or routes, is the New York City Subway in the U.S.A, with twenty four lines.
ONLY four rapid transit metro systems in the world run a complete twenty four hour, round the clock service, and they are all located in the same country.
They are the New York City Subway, the Blue and Red Lines of the Chicago L system, Philidelphia's PATCO System and the New York City to New Jersey PATH - Port Authority Trans Hudson - system.
Some cities offer bus services during the hours that their metros are closed, particularly ones that cover airports or major rail stations on their routes.
Certain cities offer 24 / 7 services during special occasions but as a general rule it is unusual to find a twenty four hour metro system due to the fact that the lines need to be cleared for maintenance and the best time to do this is overnight when passenger numbers are low.
THE world's deepest metro system is the Pyongyang Metro in North Korea which is 110 meters deep. The tunnel was built as part of an underground military facility.
THE world's deepest metro, underground station is the Arsenalna Station on the Kiev Metro in Ukraine, at 107 meters deep.
The world's largest metro station is Union Square Station on the Dubai Metro in the United Arab Emirates which covers an area of 67,056 square meters.
ONLY one metro system in the world has been designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site. That is the Budapest Metro in Hungary which was designated in 2002. The system was opened in 1896 making it the second oldest system in the world.
OVER thirty of the world's metro systems offer either a complete network or partial system of automated (driverless) trains. The longest of these systems is the Dubai Metro in the United Arab Emirates at 74.6 kilometers.
The first metro system to implement the use of automated trains was the Lille Metro in France when it introduced driverless trains on it's newly opened metro in 1983.
THE metro system with the longest, single escalator in the world is situated at the Park Pobedy Station on the Moscow Metro in Russia which is 126.8 meters long and takes two minutes forty seconds to ride.
However the longest escalator on any metro system, which is in fact made up of two escalators one above the other, is situated at the Wheaton Street Station on the Washington D.C Subway in the U.S.A, The two escalators are both seventy meters long, have a vertical rise of thirty meters and take three minutes to ride.
The world’s longest metro system tunnel is located on Line 3 of the Guangzhou Metro in China. The tunnel is located between the Airport South Station and Panyu Square Station and is 60.4 km / 37.5 miles long.
This makes it four kilometers longer than the world’s longest regular rail tunnel which is the Gotthard Base Tunnel located in Switzerland at 56.32 km / 35 miles long.
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THE world's fastest metro system train is the Maglev or Transrapid which runs by way of magnetic levitation on the Longyang Road to Pudong International Airport line of the Shanghai Metro in China.
The train has been known to reach speeds of up to 501 km/h (311 mph) on test drives but normally operates at speeds of around 431 km/h (268 mph).
THE world's most northerly located metro system is Finland's Helsinki Metro.
THE world's most southerly located metro system is Argentina's Buenos Aries Metro.
The world's ten longest metro system tunnels are situated on ;
1 - Line 3 of the Guangzhou Metro in China at 60.4 km / 37.5 miles long which is located between the city’s Airport South Station and Panyu Square Station.
2 - Line 10 of the Beijing Subway in China at 57.1km / 35.5 miles long which is located between the city’s Xiju Station and Shoujingmao Station.
3 - Line 5 of the Seoul Subway in South Korea at 47.6km / 29.6 miles long which is located between the city’s Banghwa Station and Macheon Station.
4 - The Serpukhovsko Timiryazevskaya Line of the Moscow Metro in Russia at 41.5 km / 25.7 miles long which is located between the city’s Altufyevo Station and Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo Station.
5 - Line 12 of the Madrid Metro in Spain at 40.96 km / 25.5 miles long which is located along the Metro Sur Circle line.
6 - The Oedo Line of the Toei Subway in Tokyo, Japan at 40.7 km / 25.3 miles long which is located between the city’s Hikarigaoka Station and Shiodome Station.
7 - The Kaluzhsko Rizhskaya Line of the Moscow Metro in Russia at 37.8 km / 23.5 miles long which is located between the city’s Medvedkovo Station and Novoyasenevskaya Station.
8 - The Circle Line of the Singapore MRT at 35.7 km / 22.2 miles long which is located between the city’s Dhoby Ghaut Station and Harbour Front Station.
9 - Line 6 of the Seoul Subway in South Korea at 35.1km / 21.7 miles long which is located between the city’s Eungam Loop Station and Bonghwasan Station.
10 - Line 7 of the Seoul Subway in South Korea at 35.1km / 21.7 miles long which is located between the city’s Cheongdam Station and Bupyeong-gu Office Station.
Image 1 - Nizami Station on the Baku Metro, Azerbaijan - Courtesy Baku87, wikimedia commons.
Image 2 - The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, on the Shanghai Metro, China.
Image 3 - Escalator at Wheaton Station on the Washington D.C Metro, U.S.A - Courtesy of Theadana, wikimedia commons.
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