TEHRAN – With an annual ridership of 459 million, Tehran metro has attained the rank of 25 among busiest subway systems in the world.

As per a report by thoughtco.com published in March 2017 Tokyo metro with 3.6 billion annual passenger rides, Moscow metro with 2.4 billion annual passenger rides and Seoul metro with 2.04 billion annual passenger rides top the list of world’s busiest subways among 30 cities. 

Tehran holds the 25th place above Nagoya in Japan, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Athens in Greece, Barcelona in Spain, and Munich in Germany. 

Tehran metro has 6 operational lines and has a total length route of 221 kilometers. Overall, 118 stations are active now, delivering hundreds of thousands daily rides.

According to a report published in June 2017 in Donya-e Eqtesad Persian language daily newspaper the average time for departures in Tehran subway system is fluctuating between 4 to 8 minutes in different lines and different hours of the day. However, the report highlights that the best subway systems in the world have reduced this time to 2.5 minutes.

It is not deniable that there has been developments both in terms of constructing new subway lines and adding wagons but it seems that Tehran Metro needs more budget and support for further boosting its capacity to satisfy the growing need for public transportation in the metropolitan of Tehran. Subways are efficient and convenient and can positively affect air pollution by decreasing the use of personal cars. 
 
MAH/MQ/MG