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Metro, Subway, MRT, U-Bahn, Metrorail — whatever you like to call it, here's a creative global resource for it. Metro Bits is a non-profit database, a virtual grid of thousands of chunks of data, backed by reliable sources and partly contributed by users. There are two views on the data:
• Categories (menu on the left) compare the world's subways in respect of their various features.
• City pages (menu on the right) for each of the world's currently 176 subways (big font: big network, dark font: old network).
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News
31 August 2010. Site updates.
30 August 2010. Metro Bits has a new page about the different modes of Fare Collection of many subway systems. You can find the same facts in the top table on each City Page.
24 August 2010. Metro Bits has a new page that lists nearly all Official Transit Websites.
31 May 2010. In Hamburg, Germany, an LRT system is currently under political debate. Support is urgently needed as the city's overcrowded bus transportation needs relief, but the planned LRT may fall victim to radical financial savings measures. To support the LRT, visit stadtbahnjetzt.de, the initiative's website, and leave your virtual signature behind.
10 April 2010. Shanghai overtook London as the world's largest metro network. Exactly 15 years after opening its first metro line, an extension of Line 2 brings Shanghai's metro to a length of 420 km (excluding the maglev line).
3 May 2010. A new, glossy book called Metroine presents the rolling stock of 40 European cities in nicely arranged photos from different perspectives. There are only 1500 copies available in specialty stores, so don't wait too long to get yours!
29 March 2010. In the morning, Moscow's metro was hit by suicide bombings killing 38 people. The blasts took place at Lubyanka station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line and, 40 minutes later, at Park Kultury station on the Koltsevaya Line [bbc.co.uk]. There was a similar attack back in 2004.
14 March 2010. To clean up things, this root page will now only list news of the world's metro and subway systems or major Metro Bits updates. Notes on minor Metro Bits updates will appear on the new Updates page.
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Have your say!
6 Feb 2010. Every page (except this root page) now has an individual feedback section at its bottom. Feel free to share your subway wisdom with the world and write down your comments or additional facts you are aware of.
9 Jan 2010. Happy New Year! The latest updates by Jordi reflect a hesitant development in the "old world of metros" with only 6 new stations in Europe and America combined, while Asia boasts a whopping 129 new metro stations. Shanghai now joins the club of "monster metros" (London, New York, Tokyo) with a network length of over 300 km.
11 Oct 2009. There's only one metro line on this planet listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It's not Moscow's palace-style stations or Stockholm's painted caves, which might come to mind. It is Budapest's Line 1, the oldest metro on the European continent, with its restored tile-and-wood stations and narrow trains. It was added to UNESCO's Budapest entry in 2002 already. Definitely a fact to be noted on Metro Bits, but it had escaped attention until now.
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A success story
Metros are the most efficient means of transport in big cities. Every year, a lot of existing metros are being extended and new systems sprout. The number of metro cities has more than doubled in the past 30 years! The following graph (based on the opening dates in the World Metro Database) shows how the number has increased since the world's first metro was opened in London in 1863:
17 Sep 2009. On 9 September, the new metro in Dubai opened its first line with roughly 40 km, but with only ten stations. 19 remaining intermediate stations will follow soon.
1 May 2009. A Metro Bits photo has made it on a rock album! The band 4 Letter Holiday from Leeds, UK had some time ago asked for the rights to use the photo, and now it can be seen on their debut album Contentment Is Happy Boredom. Style of music is a rock guitar sound and driving drums with a jazz-style and jamming feel. Download the album from iTunes, Amazon or other major music download sites. The band members have been working hard to raise funds for a CD version to be released very soon.
21 Nov 2008. Mark Ovenden, author of the bestseller Metro Maps of the World has launched his new book Paris Metro Style in Map and Station Design at the London Transport Museum. Co-authored by Julian Pepinster and Peter B. Lloyd, the tome is incredibly detailed and contains 500 maps and 500 photos — the result of three people's enthusiastic work over three years.
20 Nov 2008. Bucharest metro extended. Lausanne's metro line 2, which had seen public test runs in the preceding weeks, is now officially opened.
19 Oct 2008. London has "lost" a metro line. The East London Line is closed for upgrading. By June 2010, the line will belong to London Overground and run from Dalston Junction in the north to New Cross, Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south.
Subways need not be boring or dreary! Many operators of metros, subways or underground railways want to attract more passengers with good station design. This often means extra effort and higher costs for the metro operators but it seems to pay off when a metro is more than just a means of transport but something the residents can be proud of. Read more...
    
Most metros have logos or symbols to mark their station entrances, rolling stock, and printed matter such as maps or tickets. Since most metros around the world are indeed called 'metros' (only few are called subway, underground, U-Bahn, T-bana or something else), many metro logos are more or less fancy variations of the letter M. More about metro logos...
Some subway systems are stylish enough to communicate with their customers through exclusively designed typefaces for wayfinding signage and paperwork. More about metro fonts...
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