Public Transportation

When many of the International students come over to study at my university, they often wonder how we get from place to place. "Is there a bus that goes down town?" No, sorry. "Is there a train to get to the closer big city?" No, sorry. Many places in the countries they come from are equip with these travel tools to get from place to place. In the U.S., there aren't as many available niceties.

In other places, there are different fantastic metro systems. I'm from Queens, and I am used to using a form of public transportation. I've also traveled on my fair share of metro systems.

Public transportation, or in the more common use, metros, help to make life a lot simpler for people on their daily commute.

One of the most bizarre, has to be the St. Petersburg metro. It started in the 1950s, and each station has such an old fashioned look about it. Some of the floors can be marble with the marble continuing throughout the entire station, with a chandelier on the ceiling.

The stations are also built over 100 meters underground because of the city's geology. So, after you enter the metro via the usual staircase, there is an escalator in which you cannot even see the bottom at first. Usually in the morning rush, you can see people trying to run down the escalator. And once at the bottom, you can't see the top.

It also is one of the busiest subways in the world (Tokyo rates number one, however I've never had the pleasure of visiting said metro system).

According to the number of people which ride the subway every day, here's a list of the top ten busiest subway systems.

1. Tokyo
2. Moscow
3. Seoul
4. New York City
5. Mexico City
6. Beijing
7. Paris
8. Hong Kong
9. Shanghai
10. London

(St. Petersburg is number 13.)