London’s Underground has grown into a 272-station Metro network running across 250 miles, a system that began in January 1863 and is still carrying more than four million Londoners and visitors every day. Beijing’s Metro, which opened in 1971, is now even larger by distance and throughput, with 27 lines, one Maglev route and close to 10 million trips a day.
The comparison is striking because the London network is still widely thought of as a system buried below the city, yet 55% of it lies above ground. That makes its scale harder to picture and helps explain why it remains one of the most recognisable transit systems in the world, not just a way to move people but a public fixture that has outlasted generations of riders.
The numbers also show how differently major cities have built their rail backbones. London’s system has 11 lines and 272 stations spread across 250 miles, while Beijing’s extends for 564 miles across the capital and surrounding districts, with 490 stations and six lines fully automated with driverless trains. Beijing’s total of 3.6 billion trips in 2025 works out to an average of a little under 10 million a day, which matches the daily-ridership figure and underlines how heavily the city depends on the network.
Copenhagen offers another model entirely. Its Metro trains run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, linking 39 stations across four lines, with more than 370,000 people using the M trains each day. The first section opened in 2002, and the system has carried more than a billion passengers since then, a reminder that newer metros can be built around automation and round-the-clock service from the start.
That contrast is the real story here. Metro systems vary widely in age, design and scale, but they all serve the same purpose: keeping large cities moving when roads clog and distances stretch. London’s oldest line opened between Paddington and Farringdon in January 1863, and the network’s endurance is part of what makes it matter now, as bigger cities keep leaning on rail to do work that cars never can. Beijing is still extending its system, but the larger question for every city is the same one these three networks answer in different ways: how much of urban life can be carried underground, above ground, and through the day and night without stopping.
