Rankings from the International Association of Public Transport have Tokyo on top, followed by Beijing and Shanghai. New York comes in seventh.
The New York subway gets pretty crowded, as does the London Tube. But the world's busiest lines operate in Asia. "New analysis from UITP, the international association of public transport, has produced a list of the ten busiest metro networks in the world, and London isn't even on it." New York places seventh by number of annual journeys.
Tokyo remains in first place with Beijing close behind. An alternate set of numbers from City Metric places Beijing ahead of Tokyo in total ridership.
Another observation from the UITP report: "One surprising result here is New York. It, too, comes in the top five in terms of stations and length of network, but drops to seventh in terms of passenger numbers. This means it's practically empty compared to the packed networks in Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing."
FULL STORY: Most of the world's busiest metros are in Asia
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research