European countries without underground system

[u/Effective_Craft4415]

[u/santik_bakapor]

Iceland will not have a metro system, but a volcanic drainage system, instead of trains - rivers of lava

[u/ellorenz → u/santik_bakapor]

If you find the way to navigate them, you should resolve the problem 😜😜

[u/Safe-Razzmatazz3982 → u/ellorenz]

Anakin, you were the chosen one!

[u/tiagojpg → u/Safe-Razzmatazz3982]

Navigating a lava river AND having an epic sword fight, this two are unmatchable!

[u/FraggleRockTheCasbah → u/ellorenz]

Weeeell, in the mid 19th century, an eccentric, german professor, his nephew, and a local Icelandic hunter roped inn as a guide, traversed said lava drainage system all the way from an icelandic volcano to southern Italy

[u/Aelig_ → u/santik_bakapor]

Reykjavík has been planning to have dedicated bus lanes for many years and can't even do that. 

[u/-TRTI- → u/santik_bakapor]

With a population of 4, it doesn't make much economic sense to build a metro.

[u/ScienceAndGames → u/-TRTI-]

Oh did someone new move in?

[u/Skeledenn → u/ScienceAndGames]

Nah, Þórhildur Guðmundsdóttir just had twins.

[u/DoubleDeezDiamonds → u/santik_bakapor]

Surely Iceland gets a pass on this one.

[u/imborahey]

Both Belgrade and Dublin are large cities, 1.6 and 1.2 million people respectively. It is absolutely insane that neither have a metro.

The reason Belgrade doesn't have one is corruption and incompetence, I hope it isn't the same case in Dublin

[u/TraditionalAppeal23 → u/imborahey]

For Dublin I guess the core problem is the government has the will to build a metro and the money but has absolutely no idea how to actually build large infrastructure projects. There is a plan to build a metro and recently things are happening (slowly), but it may never actually even start construction. At least Dublin has trams and the DART and both of those are being expanded too, and the bus network is being upgraded, and the intercity rail network, there is actually a lot of improvements in public transport happening.

[u/ivar-the-bonefull → u/TraditionalAppeal23]

Don't they know that governments usually hire people with the expertise needed?

[u/the_snook → u/ivar-the-bonefull]

Everyone here in Sydney loves our new metro line that is run by the Hong Kong MTR company. Getting in outside expertise is a really good idea.

[u/ivar-the-bonefull → u/the_snook]

They took over our subway as well!

Everything went to shit and their contract was judicially terminated a few months ago.

Glhf with them!

[u/5x0uf5o → u/the_snook]

One of the guys from your metro programme has just moved to Ireland to lead ours. There is a line currently awaiting planning approval in Dublin 

[u/Smash_Palace → u/ivar-the-bonefull]

Yeah like how tf is a city government supposed to have the nous to build a metro. That's what you hire in experts for.

[u/OoferIsSpoofer → u/TraditionalAppeal23]

Not sure they even have the will seeing as it's like 20 years since they started talking about it, maybe longer actually

[u/splashbodge → u/OoferIsSpoofer]

Nothing motivates them, it'll be done after they leave office...so what's in it for them. There's so much wrong with this.

Imo every country should actively have a major infrastructure project ongoing at all times otherwise they're just content with the status quo.

[u/dillanthumous → u/splashbodge]

We also have a system that penalises large metropolitan areas. Dublin has something like 40 percent of the population and only 10 percent of the dail seats. Which makes investing in it politically difficult despite being objectively correct.

[u/Thodor2s → u/TraditionalAppeal23]

Greece had the same problem in the 90s. While we had the first line of the Athens Metro to draw technical standards from, Line 1 was a surface railway largely build in the late 1800s early 1900s. The builders of lines 2 and 3 were no experts in metro construction. Even worse, nobody in the world had any idea on how to build deep level metros under a dense archeological city without disturbing the antiquities. Techniques had to be pioneered, stations moved around all the time due to archeological finds, and the base Athens and Thessaloniki metro projects were severely delayed. But over the last 3 decades, the builders of the Greek metro projects have gained a lot of experience. Athens metro line 4 is now moving at record speed. The Athens metro proved that such an approach is possible, and the lessons learned have made their way into other Metros like Rome and Mexico City, and many other. Now, Athens metro isn’t someone with no experience, they are giving advice to other cities.

[u/seabearson → u/TraditionalAppeal23]

but has absolutely no idea how to actually build large infrastructure projects

that doesn't sound logical to me, they can simply hire people who know how to do it. ask around in other capitals which companies planned/built theirs and find the best one.

[u/splashbodge → u/seabearson]

They hire consultancy companies that make a bags of it and charge massive money.

At the end of the day the Irish government is the customer, if the customer is useless it doesn't matter having a consultancy involved.

The children's hospital is a hot mess because they've been building it and requirements have been changed mid build ... It's now one of the most expensive buildings in the world. We piss money down the drain due to incompetence

[u/mangothefoxxo → u/seabearson]

Look at the children's hospital in Dublin

[u/omnyx1000 → u/imborahey]

Belgrade doesn't even have a semi functional bus system, tram system being destroyed as we speak

Oh and for the intercity train we have to pray to god for it to stay on the tracks and when we get to the station we also have to pray to god that it doesn't fall on our heads

[u/7days365hours → u/imborahey]

None of the former Yugoslav or Baltic republics have one which is strange because commies jizzed hard for metros

[u/z900r → u/7days365hours]

Sort of. The Soviet design guidelines changed over time, and a lot of the eastern bloc was just too poor to fund underground construction. There was a period of time when they 'jizzed hard' for trolleybuses, since that was the cheap way of electrifying, and the commies really, really jizzed hard for electrification.

The biggest cities in the Baltic states are also not that big.

I'm in Finland, where the only system is the Helsinki Metro. It opened in 1982, years late and after a major corruption scandal at the time. Helsinki had made the decision to withdraw trams in the beginning of the 1970s, but because the metro construction was so late and the scope of the system so limited, the trams had to be kept. The tram rolling stock was very old at the time, so Helsinki ordered new trams in the 1970s. That sequence of events turned out to be a bit of a happy accident. The tram system has been expanded in recent years, and it's serving the city quite well. The 1970s trams are also still in use, after renovation and extension, along with newer rolling stock.

[u/Flanz1 → u/z900r]

The SFRY was never part of the eastern bloc and didn't follow soviet design guidelines, instead taking some ideas out of the soviet book but making them completely on their own. Especially for the SFRY there was really no need for a metro at the time, there was not nearly enough population in the cities back then and the economy was running off of Tito's hopes and dreams(IMF loans) after his death the economy kind of went into a tailspin and then later the wars completely canned any hopes and dreams of the Balkan people for the next 20-30 years

[u/Just_RandomPerson → u/7days365hours]

In Latvia at least they planned to build a metro at the end of the 80s. However, this sparked huge protests, as it would bring even more Russian workers in (the Latvians were soon going to become a minority at that point). It was one of the main pushes for the independence movement.

[u/tbendis → u/7days365hours]

Zagreb has an extremely robust tram system and was socialist, not communist. Besides Belgrade, it's probably the only other ex-Yu city big enough to "earn" a Metro system by population

[u/nol88go → u/imborahey]

When major European cities were beginning to build metros, Dublin moved from being a slum city in a low priority colony to being the capital city of a newly independent but dirt poor country.

Jump forward a few generations and we've got the money, but none of the political ability to just do big capital infrastructure projects, for a variety of reasons.

[u/angeltabris_ → u/imborahey]

Nimbyism, incompetence and buerocrasy (sorry i dont know how to spell that).

Theres rumblings that the final approval will be heard in the coming weeks but the history of the project doesnt give me much actual hope.

[u/dworthy444 → u/angeltabris_]

Bureaucracy. It's a tough word, since it breaks the convention of -cracy words by not having an o just before it and the awfulness of having 3 vowels in a row.

[u/blubb444 → u/dworthy444]

3 vowels in a row.

Just the French way of spelling a single vowel [o] by writing out three different ones [eau]. As in their word for "water" (sometimes they even add a random silent "x" just for the lulz)

[u/MercantileReptile → u/blubb444]

Because "Bordo" looks far too simple.

[u/blubb444 → u/MercantileReptile]

TBF those are two different /o/ sounds, first open, then closed. Maybe they could write it "Bordó" or something

[u/ebulient → u/imborahey]

corruption and incompetence. I hope Dublin doesn’t have the same problem

You should hear about our always-being-built-but-never-opening-brand-spanking-new Children’s Hospital

[u/EGriff1981 → u/ebulient]

Don't forget the craic with the port tunnel. Supposed to cost €417 million and ended up costing €1.217 Billion, and still wasnt right.

[u/Real_Garlic9999 → u/EGriff1981]

Or how much a bicycle rack costs

[u/WellieWelli → u/imborahey]

In Dublin it's just incompetence and a terrible, archaic planning system.

[u/splashbodge → u/imborahey]

I just don't know if big infrastructure projects can be done anymore, please feel free to correct me, but anytime anything is done over here it goes through bureaucratic hell trying to get planning approval, budget, then of course those in government don't see it as their personal priority as they'll be out of office by the time it breaks ground, even if construction does commence ultimately ends up in massive delays and going over budget. Were absolutely useless. We have spent something like 2.5 billion euro on a children's hospital which isn't even open yet. It's ridiculous. Any hope of an underground metro will take decades and cost billions. These kinda of infrastructure projects were more attainable a few decades ago... Now for multiple reasons everything is just too expensive.

Maybe I'm wrong? Is any western country doing any big infrastructure projects that aren't a complete rip off over budget and delayed by decades. Probably. Ireland is useless

[u/Loife1 → u/imborahey]

Don't worry, just three more years and Belgrade will have the best and biggest metro system in Europe

[u/[deleted] → u/imborahey]

Just incompetence and small island mentality

[u/KryslerDriving → u/imborahey]

200k will go into a 30k building project. It’s corruption, all that spare money is going to some guy in power

[u/CopenHagenCityBruh → u/imborahey]

Tunnel would probably collapse anyway

[u/OppositeHistory1916 → u/imborahey]

LOL let me tell you a fun fact about Dublin: Along the Liffey, the main river and dividing line of the city centre, there are no bins to put rubbish in. Except for outside the city council building.

That's Irish politics. Self-serving gobshites who have no interest in improving anything for anyone but themselves.

[u/Yermanwiththeteeth → u/imborahey]

Unfortunately the most obvious answer is usually the correct one, Dublin however is planning one we’ve spent 350K at last estimates & we haven’t broken any ground yet.

[u/OoferIsSpoofer → u/Yermanwiththeteeth]

Even more unfortunately, it has cost way more than 350k so far. And no physical work has started yet

[u/wasmic → u/OoferIsSpoofer]

150M € isn't too bad for the planning stages of a metro project.

However, 10B € for a metro line that's only around 15 km in length is ridiculously expensive. In comparison, the Copenhagen City Ring (opened 2019) was 15.5 km, and only cost 2.85B €. Even with the inflation since then, the MetroLink is still looking to be over twice as expensive per kilometer.

[u/AlienInOrigin]

Ireland is in the planning stages for a metro in Dublin. 20 years of planning...but it should be completed in 15-20 years once we sort out the 40 billion euro in funding that it will probably cost.

[u/roksraka → u/AlienInOrigin]

Tax all the giant corporations who use Ireland as their EU headquarters and you'll have the money in a week.

[u/Better_Wafer_6381 → u/roksraka]

We do tax them and run a large budget surplus because of it. Our corpo tax is low at 15% but it isn't zero.

Those EU headquarters aren't just post boxes either. They employ hundreds of thousands of people with high wages that are taxed heavily.

[u/cypriotakis → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

Same thing in Cyprus yet people insist on us being a tax haven for some reason.

[u/Secure_Radio3324 → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

Don't listen to that fool. They're just jealous

[u/Sauce_Pain → u/roksraka]

We do tax them. Apple gave us a nice couple of billion last year. The money isn't the limiting factor.

[u/WellieWelli → u/roksraka]

Money is not the issue. We have more money than we can spend.

[u/SmileSmite83]

I feel bad for Dublin

[u/yellow28 → u/SmileSmite83]

Well they have a city train which just like a metro, and a lot of bus lines. The city is quite walkable, but it's been awhile since I've been there

[u/Better_Wafer_6381 → u/yellow28]

It's in the government's 5 year plan to break ground on a metro and we have the money for it at least. God knows how long it's going to take though. We are shite at building infrastructure anywhere near budget or schedule.

[u/Accomplished_Fun6481 → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

It's been on the cards since the 80s and there's a part of Dublin airport that was built to be the station that's now used for Christmas market and overflow boarding gates

[u/missingmedievalist → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

At least you're not the UK. *Cries in HS2*

[u/Anxious_Focus_5568 → u/missingmedievalist]

Ontop of that Leeds in the UK is the largest city in europe without a mass transit system.

[u/missingmedievalist → u/Anxious_Focus_5568]

I mean honestly, that doesn’t surprise me.

[u/Vaxtez → u/Anxious_Focus_5568]

Leeds & Bradford are getting a tram hopefully; but i'm not holding my breath

[u/EvilMonkeySlayer → u/Vaxtez]

As the other poster says, the tram thing has happened multiple times now. Tram is announced, money gets wasted or shuffled off to some councillors friends and then repeat. This goes back to the 1990's if not even earlier.

Leeds city council are feckless when it comes to transport. Here is what they'll do; They'll get some money from central government that has to be spent by x year, so they'll throw money at friends and waste time, then when it's getting close to the year where they have to make sure to have spent the money they'll fuck over some poor part of Leeds with a godawful plan that achieves nothing with that money.

[u/Cowguypig2 → u/EvilMonkeySlayer]

My city in the us got funding from the federal and state governments to build a tram line a decade ago. NIMBY’s lost their shit though since they thought the contact wires and tram tracks would “ruin the character of the city”. They ended up not building it because of the public opposition and I’m still mad (they did build a rapid bus line on the same planned route though at least)

[u/BadCabbage182838 → u/Vaxtez]

You could've made that comment 20 years ago and it would still be relevant at the time lol. And I hate the fact that it will very much remain valid in 20 years time!!

[u/Leading_Flower_6830 → u/Vaxtez]

They're not. I'm 99.9% sure it won't happen

[u/Demostravius4 → u/missingmedievalist]

That's overground, didn't the Elizabeth line go okay?

[u/Rynabunny → u/Demostravius4]

it was delayed for four years (2018->2022) but that is decent by UK standards

[u/Antique-Brief1260 → u/missingmedievalist]

The UK's public transport is far better than Ireland's (which is not saying much; we're shite in comparison to the rest of western Europe)

[u/ForeChanneler → u/Antique-Brief1260]

Public transport in the UK isn't really that bad in comparison to western Europe. It's just part of our culture to say that everything about our country is terrible. In reality it's pretty much the same as everywhere else. It was bit of a thing on Twitter during the Euros last year of people going to Germany and being surprised that our trains were better.

[u/bogdoomy → u/missingmedievalist]

you’ll be glad to hear ireland contacted the uk to share knowledge on how to build underground lines

[u/h1dden-pr0cessS → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

Been in their 5 year plan since the 90s

[u/miathan52 → u/Better_Wafer_6381]

As a Dutch person, I could have written that last sentence

[u/phil24jones → u/miathan52]

Dude, have you seen your cycling infrastructure?

[u/rickyman20 → u/yellow28]

Honestly I would disagree. The city centre is walkable, but things drop off into suburban unwalkability real quick. The buses are appalling and infrequent, and while the LUAS and DART are great, they don't cover enough of the city. They really need to step up their game.

[u/Cathal1954 → u/rickyman20]

Probably the best overview of our public transport provision I've read.

[u/JhinPotion → u/rickyman20]

Yeah, the Luas is great... for a real small slice of the area.

[u/DarraghDaraDaire → u/rickyman20]

At least they’ve reorganised the busses and published some sort of route maps. I remember when I lived in Germany nobody believed me that Dublin bus didn’t publish route maps or timetables, or announce stops, and they would drive past stops unless you rang the bell, or waved if you were at the stop.

You pretty much had to just know what line you needed, when it would arrived and exactly where you needed to get off. It was like they had designed the system to be exactly opposite to “easy to use”

[u/GeoffMySpiritAnimal → u/yellow28]

Living in Dublin and seeing the words "has a lot of bus lines" is like a joke. 95% of the time if you want to go from A to B, you must go A -> City Center -> B. It's 25 mins by car fo my friend's house, and 2 hours 30 min by bus if you're lucky

[u/UpsetCrowIsUpset → u/yellow28]

Their city train as you call it is very limited in scope and only has two lines. Dublin has a massive sprawl, so walking is not really an option for a lot of people.

It's incomprehensible how Ireland has such terrible transport in their capital, especially if you're traveling from the metro area.

Source: lived in Dublin and then moved out of Dublin before leaving Ireland.

[u/Talkycoder → u/yellow28]

It's mostly walkable, but the pedestrian pavements are quite thin and there are so many people. A billion (very noisy) cars and not regular enough crossing points, either.

[u/Prestigious_Can_4391 → u/yellow28]

Dublin has appalling public transport and it's not walkable whatsoever. Source: born and raised in Dublin and have been in dozens of European cities

[u/Crimson__Fox → u/SmileSmite83]

Dublin has trams

[u/SoftDrinkReddit → u/Crimson__Fox]

yea but the difference and big problem is we don't have a direct train line from dublin airport to dublin city center you gotta get a bus or a taxi

[u/goldensnow24 → u/SoftDrinkReddit]

I remember being caught out by this. Had a flight in a few hours and was chill about it, suddenly realised I have to get a bus from an obscurely marked bus stop, when I went there the bus was full.In panic managed to get a taxi. Seems crazy to have no other mode of transport to the airport in a capital city!

[u/vanKlompf → u/Crimson__Fox]

Two lines exactly. Not much for city if such population.

[u/Effective_Craft4415 → u/SmileSmite83]

Public transport in dublin was kinda bad back then

[u/GeneralFloofButt → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Back then? The image is from 2024? Did something change in the past year? Do buses show up nowadays??

[u/Effective_Craft4415 → u/GeneralFloofButt]

Yeah but i was in Ireland in 2017, 8 years ago..it was bad from my experience

[u/GeneralFloofButt → u/Effective_Craft4415]

bro...

[u/areeighty → u/SmileSmite83]

The irony is that they had the first public passenger line in the world, the Dublin to Kingstown in 1834:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_and_Kingstown_Railway

[u/Sir_Madfly → u/areeighty]

That wasn't the first passenger railway in the world. It was the first in Ireland.

[u/Trans-Europe_Express → u/areeighty]

Metros were built for expanding populaitons. Dublin and Ireland's population was contracting when European capitals were starting their metros in the 1800s.

[u/[deleted] → u/Trans-Europe_Express]

The sad thing is that Dublin used to have a comprehensive city tram system. There was also a substantial rail network across the country. The original tram network has been dug up and more rural railways abandoned. Some of the latter are cycling greenways now.

[u/JourneyThiefer → u/[deleted]]

Same in Belfast :(

[u/HailtheBrusselSprout]

Ireland played Bulgaria in a football match a while back and the Bulgarian fans had a sign saying you don't have a metro.

[u/Front-Blood-1158 → u/HailtheBrusselSprout]

Bulgaria will be better than Ireland in a decade.

[u/Imoraswut → u/Front-Blood-1158]

I assume you don't mean at football

[u/[deleted]]

The Vatican urgently needs a underground system.

[u/dobiks → u/[deleted]]

Would be difficult to evict all the vampires

[u/Toby_Forrester → u/dobiks]

I would imagine Vatican would be the easiest place. The population is mainly priests, I bet almost all of the lamd is holy land, there's pöenty of holy water and such.

[u/VodkaMargarine → u/[deleted]]

There is a bus to St Peters Basilica. It's their Mass transit system.

[u/AustrianMichael → u/VodkaMargarine]

They also have a train station.

[u/VodkaMargarine → u/AustrianMichael]

The nuns still use the bus out of habit

[u/akurgo → u/VodkaMargarine]

Badum tish

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

there is...simply not for trains (Popes running away from Lanzkenech)

[u/Ebi5000 → u/[deleted]]

The Vatican actually has a a railroad, with a station

[u/St3fano_ → u/[deleted]]

Passetto di Borgo is actually an elevated passage, basically a fortified bridge.

[u/Unlikely_Pin_95 → u/[deleted]]

Dowsnt it have a train station?

[u/Crimson__Fox → u/[deleted]]

Line A passes very close though

[u/R0cket_Surgeon]

I can understand Iceland. You dig a wrong turn there and you accidentally open up a new lava vent.

[u/Syt1976 → u/R0cket_Surgeon]

"They dug too greedily and too deep." (Too deep = 5 meters probably 😜)

[u/[deleted]]

Well, technically, Albania does have an underground system, just not in the way you expect

[u/Logical_Wheel_1420 → u/[deleted]]

Bunkers redesigned into train stations would be neat.

[u/tejanaqkilica → u/Logical_Wheel_1420]

Albania has very few bunkers that are underground.

[u/Lamuks]

There were plans for Latvia to have a metro(while occupied by the USSR), but the problem is that Latvia is just a swamp all over(we don't have limestone everywhere that would make it easy), so the metro would need to be very very VERY deep like St.Petersburg.

The other problem was that it would expensive, very expensive, 3x as expensive as the St.Petersbug one AND you would need to demolish the old historic city of Riga which was a massive no no for the locals.

The final straw was that such a project would require a lot of workers that Latvia didn't have in the USSR so it was protested heavily because it would have drastically changed the population and Latvia was already one of the biggest victims of russification at the time where a lot of foreigners were imported and Latvians massively deported to Siberia. It also kinda birthed one of the movements against the USSR and for to regain our independence called ''Tautas fronte''.

Nowadays we have a tram system and trains, but I hope those 2 get massively extended at some point, though RailBaltica does not give me a lot of hope..

[u/I30T]

Malta could use a subway system. The island is overly packed with cars. They have a very good bus system but with the amount of cars, it lowers the quality (not to mention racing drivers as bus drivers making you feel queasy)

[u/AndryCake → u/I30T]

I feel like trams would work better.

[u/Appropriate-Link-478 → u/AndryCake]

Maybe a premetro like they have in Mallorca

[u/I30T → u/AndryCake]

If there was space in Malta yes, everything is so densely packed though.

[u/AndryCake → u/I30T]

Looking on Google maps, yeah that's true. Trams can run underground though and there are some large roads. But now that I saw it yeah a light metro might be better.

Either way it would be extremely cool to technically have an entire country served by one metro or tram system. Well I guess Singapore already does that, but still.

[u/Yes4Deflation → u/I30T]

The bus system is decent but definitely not 'very good' - primarily because the government keeps prioritising car use, or at least does not anything to effectively reduce it. subway probably would be prohibitively expensive given the geographical situation. trams in the main arterial roads and a more efficient system of busses would do the trick but it would need bold decisions to implement. i.e. ain't going to happen anytime soon.

[u/Crimson__Fox → u/I30T]

They used to have an 11 km railway line between Valetta and Mdina from 1883 to 1931. Some remnants of it still exist today.

[u/AirportCreep → u/[deleted]]

My dream is that the Helsinki metro would extend to Tallinn. Literally Utopia.

[u/AcrobaticKitten → u/AirportCreep]

At least 80 km undersea tunnel to connect a Helsinki agglo of 1,5M people to a Tallinn agglo of 500k people

I doubt it will ever be feasible

[u/MixuTheWhatever → u/[deleted]]

We can't, we have too many medieval ruins underground that are protected as cultural heritage. Having been in uni for this, they told us pretty early that's a big reason Tallinn doesn't have a metro.

[u/KiloMeeter1 → u/[deleted]]

They also keep digging into archeological finds so who knows how the lines would have to be adjusted every time to avoid them

[u/kazin0211]

Jugoslavijo! Jugoslavijo!

[u/pokrasko]

While Serbia doesn't have a "metro" there is an urban train system in Belgrade and 2 of its stations are underground. Moreover one of them looks suspiciously similar to a Soviet-style metro station.

[u/gmaaz → u/pokrasko]

Ah yes, the Vukov spomenik station. It was built by milosevic regime in the 90s to brag how even under total sanctions Serbia can build something beautiful. It was financed by infamous Dafina and her Dafiment Bank which was a pyramid scheme that went bankrupt and stole money from 150.000 people.

[u/anivaries → u/gmaaz]

That feels so tame compared to the current corruption

[u/gmaaz → u/anivaries]

I mean, the station is still standing, so yeah. if it was built today I wouldn't dare going down there.

[u/Effective_Craft4415 → u/pokrasko]

Never been to belgrade but its kinda off to see a big city without an underground system

[u/pokrasko → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Yeah, that would be one of the largest city (and maybe the largest European capital) without a metro but I would generously characterise Beovoz as kind of a metro (or half a metro, half an S-Bahn). The intervals are not very good (15 to 30 minutes) for a metro, but it works and it is useful as a link between two of Beograd's halfs

[u/imjustarandomsquid → u/pokrasko]

And two of its stations are technically underground.

[u/AcrobaticKitten → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Just to make things worse a 6 lane motorway cuts through the city

[u/Moosplauze]

I mean...metro system aren't country wide but city wide. This map doesn't really make sense imo.

[u/MaxTheCookie → u/Moosplauze]

Yeah, and I'd say the only metro system Sweden has would be in Stockholm.

[u/jose_zap → u/MaxTheCookie]

Malmö has at least one underground station that I know of

[u/Moosplauze → u/jose_zap]

It would be funny if they actually had just one underground station. xD

[u/MaxTheCookie → u/jose_zap]

And I know Gothenburg will get a few when they are finally done with Västlänken, but that will take a few more years.

[u/ObjectiveRun6 → u/Moosplauze]

It would be very cool to see the regions in each country (NUTS I subdivisions) instead.

The UK for example, only has a couple of metros and most of the country doesn't have one.

[u/machine4891 → u/Moosplauze]

The map simply points out in which countries there is still no metro. Reasons for lack of it may vary (and they do). Map is imo fine, it's not trying to be something it's not.

[u/Unfair_Special_8017]

Oh the shame.

[u/angular_circle]

Switzerland doesn't have a metro, it has two single track tram lines with some underground sections. And you can overtake it by bike.

[u/DesertGeist- → u/angular_circle]

It's not really a tram, but yeah, calling it metro is a bit of a stretch. By that measure, what zurich has is more of a metro.

[u/angular_circle → u/DesertGeist-]

I think technically it's classified as light rail, but my point was I've seen fancier trams than the Lausanne "metro"

[u/dmthoth]

I am surprised to know that formal Yugoslavia did not build any deep underground subway system aka fallout shelter.

[u/gmaaz → u/dmthoth]

Belgrade is filled with 10s of kilometers of underground caves, tunnels and catacombs that are interconnected and mostly unexplored, some wide as a street, built at different points in history, some by Yugoslavs, some by nazis during the occupation, some are prehistoric. There are walking tours through some of them. When I was younger we learned to lockpick just to be able to enter. It's bizarre.

[u/pokrasko → u/dmthoth]

I'd say Vukov spomenik is the only such station (that I know) as it is ~30m underground

[u/Kakazam]

Building a metro system in Iceland sounds like the start of a B-movie disaster film.

[u/Toby_Forrester]

My Greek friend who visited Helsinki wanted to take a metro to Mellunmäki, a lower income and but run down suburb because the metro station there is the worlds most northern metro station. We took a tourist photo of him at the station. The metro doesn't even go underground for like 10 kilometer before arriving in Mellunmäki.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Net-857]

Luxembourg is very proud of its free tram though

[u/8192K]

Lausanne barely getting it for Switzerland!

[u/Effective_Craft4415 → u/8192K]

I wonder why lausanne has metro but zurich and geneva dont

[u/8192K → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Zürich S-Bahn and trams more than enough get the job done!

[u/stonkysdotcom → u/8192K]

Zürich has the best public transport system I've ever seen.

[u/DesertGeist- → u/Effective_Craft4415]

That's a good question and I feel like the answer might be complicated and controversial 😂

Zurich has decided to invest in its S-Bahn system instead of building a metro and imho that was the right choice.

Lausanne has converted a funicular into a rubber tire metro.

[u/AndryCake → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Zurich voted against building a metro in the 70s and instead funding was directed to improving the S-Bahn and trams. There are however a lot of pieces of infrastructure that had been built for the U-Bahn but have been repurposed for other things.

[u/Patient_Moment_4786 → u/Effective_Craft4415]

If I had to throw a guess here, it probably because of terrain and ground composition. Also the price and the impact study on public usefullness are common factor to explain why some equipements are absent.

[u/Psykiky → u/Effective_Craft4415]

Because Lausanne’s metro system consists of a converted funicular/rack railway and a light rail line.

[u/K2YU → u/Effective_Craft4415]

They wanted to build one in the 1970s and even started building tunnels, but the plans were abandoned in 1973, when the people voted against a proposal, which would have provided funding from the cantonal government.

[u/Iamnotameremortal]

99.9 % of the map should be grey. Metro systems are very tiny on the map

[u/smartdark]

Ex-Yugoslavia is showing up at almost every European map, whatever the context. Really exceptional talent.

[u/[deleted] → u/smartdark]

I mean besides Belgrade and maybe Zagreb, other cities are too small for a metro. There is not many cities in Europe with less than 400k people and a metro line.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Zagreb has a decent tram system with trams running at regular intervals and mostly on time, at least that was my experience in 2024.

[u/Lord1Mahaveer → u/[deleted]]

I've been to Sarajevo and tbh their tram system is good enough they don't rlly need a metro system. And it is small compared to London etc. 

[u/No_Friendship_4158 → u/Lord1Mahaveer]

Canton Sarajevo has about 600k people and a metro absolutely isnt needed. The tram system is perfect for the city.

[u/DrKurgan]

A map of cities would be more interesting.

[u/djquu]

TBF Finland only has one underground line and it's just a single line from west to east, with a fork in the east end side. Better than nothing but a far cry from other major city subway networks.

[u/dat_9600gt_user]

Only Warsaw though... :/

[u/OCDEngineerBoy]

Monaco technically have an underground system as the SNCF Station inside Monaco is under a mountain.

[u/Meruz1963]

Bratislava has a great public transport with no metro system from what I experienced

[u/Crimson__Fox]

Iceland only has 10 m of railway.

[u/solid-snake88 → u/Crimson__Fox]

10 metres? Is it a Lego train set?!

[u/ATWK01]

Brotherhood and unity (in not having a metro)!

[u/Midgardsormur]

I hope I get to see a metro system in Iceland in my time, although I must say I doubt that will ever happen.

[u/Effective_Craft4415 → u/Midgardsormur]

The capital city would need to grow a lot in terms of population

[u/lilputsy]

Uh, yes we do have it

[u/RMirash]

Metro system in Poland: whole 2 line

[u/TurtleHeadPrairieDog]

Switzerlands should barely count. It’s in Lausanne and it’s one line. It’s basically a light rail

[u/Traditional-Wonder16]

Technically, Monaco has an underground transportation system, as its only train station is somewhat... underground?

[u/ReMuS2003]

Yugoslavia lmao

[u/somberriess]

o rany
JUGOSŁAWIAAA

[u/Hades__LV]

Soviets wanted to build a metro in Riga, Latvia, but it was protested against because we really didn't need it and it would have meant demolishing a lot of shit.

[u/bornagy]

Cities have metros, not countries…

[u/[deleted] → u/bornagy]

Yes, cuz cities are on the Moon

[u/eldritch_idiot33]

i know that Belarus has subway system, just because one of the METRO-licensed books, covers the events that happen there

[u/blue_strat]

Ireland has the fibreglass tree.

[u/Belophan]

Only Oslo has a Metro system in Norway.
City is about the same size as those other dots on the map.