what is the largest (in area) metro train system in the world?

Question

area being distance covered north, south,east,west, operated by the same suburban rail company. not track, not stations, not number of passengers.

Answer 1

i would say the one in london,..? the london underground?

Answer 2

I've several books on metro railway systems but all seem coy on giving the exact answer to this question, possibly because of the difficulty in exactly defining the parameters. Exactly what does the questioner mean by 'metro train system'? He/she also asks for the 'company' with the largest geographical spread. Although it grieves me to say (as one born and brought up a Londoner) I think the palm has to go to New York as the metro railways there are operated under the umbrella of the New York City Transit Authority and these lines include the Long Island Railroad. From a London perspective, the longest metro line north is the Metropolitan line of LUR which goes from Baker Street in central London to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, a distance of 38 and a half miles. To the south, Wimbledon is about 12 miles from the same point, giving us an overall length of 50 miles, Of course, if your definition of 'metro' includes all lines used by commuters the scope in the UK widens considerably. As one example only, commuter trains run regularly to the Kent Coast, a distance of 75+ miles

Later an oops - of course, the LUL Metropolitan line doesn't now serve Aylesbury and hasn't for 40 odd years. It now ends at Amersham, a mere 24 miles from Baker Street, reducing the overall north-south length to 39. East - West the Central Line is about 30 miles long from West Ruislip to Epping.

Answer 3

Moscow's subway system reaches 41.5 km, or nearly 26 miles, on a north south axis [Specifically the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line]. This is comparable to, if not longer than, anything in NYC going north south. I believe the NYC system is larger east-west though. If you're looking at commuter rail lines, there are dozens that could be in this category. For instance just in the USA, the MARC line from DC to West Virginia is 70+ miles long. At least a few of the metrarail lines in Chicago are of similar sizes. Portland's MAX line [Light rail] streches 40 miles east-west, making it larger than the new york system east-west. There are the Shinkansen lines in japan which are regularly used for commuting and can run for hundreds, even in some cases thousands of kilometers. The Tokyo subway's comparable in size to the New York subway.

Answer 4

It's hard to quantify in area (what area does a track cover?), but easier in track length, number of stations or number of passengers per day.

My money is on NYC Subway (468 stations, 656 miles of track, 4.68 million passengers per day), but London Underground (274 stations, 253 miles of track, 2.67 mill passengers per day) is pretty big, too.

Answer 5

Actually the last I heard, in a recent documentary, the NYC subway system has around 1,100 miles of track, because many overlap and tunnels crisscross through a huge underground infrastructure.

Answer 6

London Underground is the largest and oldest.- oops- retract! Ivan is correct

Answer 7

i found this :)))