That beast up there is Tokyo’s subway map (click the map for a larger image), and it scares the bejeesus out of me. According to Infoplease, it provides 2.6 billion rides each year, and is over 281km long.
Tokyo’s subway is by no means the longest though — the Beijing network, pictured below, is set to overtake London’s in that department (with 562 km of track) by 2020. That’s slightly more than a drive from New York to Boston, back to New York, and then back to Boston. Or perhaps more helpfully, it’s farther than the ride from London to Milan.
In terms of traffic though, no city can touch Moscow’s subway (below), which carries 3.2 billion passengers each year. It’s got a pretty nifty design too — sort of like a spider sitting on a no-smoking sign.
It’s interesting (maybe just to me) that while the Moscow network seems designed to bring people from the suburbs into the city centre, the Beijing and Tokyo subways take people from anywhere to anywhere on a sort of grid. It also seems curious that there’s a ring around Moscow’s city centre with no subway stops — like a dead zone through which the commuting masses must pass twice a day.
And the last one is from Seoul, the burgeoning city of 10.4 million people where I’ll be heading in a few weeks. One look at this monster and I’m already looking forward to asking passers-by where the heck I’m staying and how on Earth to get there.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Gen Di Napoli // Sep 16, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Well, hello Mark! Fellow map nerd here. You should read my reaction piece to viewing my first-ever Vignelli at the MoMA.
http://thetragicallyunhip.com/2008/09/03/engine-engine-no-9-on-the-new-york-transit-line/
Also, I’m kind of feelin’ this ad:
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/New-York-by-Walkman/
2 Alexandr // Mar 11, 2009 at 4:58 pm
maan… there are subway stops both on the ring and in the city centre in Moscow. look more attentively to your map ;)
3 mark // Mar 12, 2009 at 12:52 am
Okay, I should have said “next to no” stops. : ) But seriously, there are huge swaths of land that don’t seem to have stops anywhere near them!
4 Alexandr // Mar 12, 2009 at 7:31 am
this is because this map is not of exact scale. gaps betwwen stations and even line directions are not in the scale. just if you logically think about it, it would be stupid to have such gaps in city centre ;) and look on the map it seems like citywest and east have not got lines, while actually they have … they only irrational thing is this structure, but this is structure of roads in Moscow and whole Central Russia, where u can see rings and radial lines. this causes terrible traffic problems.. just imagine how this brown ring overloaded…
5 mark // Mar 24, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Good points — and you’re right, that brown ring must have a ridiculous amount of traffic on it.
6 International Courrier // Nov 24, 2010 at 11:39 am
Yes, i totally agree with Alexander, those maps are not drawn to scale, just like Tube Maps in London.
7 mostafa // Sep 18, 2011 at 1:43 pm
very well
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