Do Americans say subway or metro?

For New York, I have mostly seen subway, for DC it's metro, for Boston and Pittsburgh it's the T, for Chicago it's the L. In terms of strict dictionary definitions, both terms imply underground trains. Subway is a generic term, but metro is more localized to certain cities.



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subway, also called underground, tube, or métro, underground railway system used to transport large numbers of passengers within urban and suburban areas. Subways are usually built under city streets for ease of construction, but they may take shortcuts and sometimes must pass under rivers.

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In America metro is usually short for metropolitan area (a big city and its area of influence). SUMMARY (simplified) = the tube (or the underground) = the subway / the train.

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In America the first metro was built in New York, and it was called SUBWAY because it was built mostly under the streets (sub= under / way= road), since Manhattan street plan is quite a regular grill and it was easy to do so. But most everywhere else they usually call it simply the TRAIN.

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Metro is an abbreviation for the word Metropolitan. When used in conjunction with transportation it can mean anything from a bus line, train system, thoroughfare, subway, etc. It is simply a local preference in vernacular. A subway denotes under such as the NYC subway system or under passes in Los Angeles.

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In Europe, the underground train network is called the metro. This same type of underground system in the United States is called the subway.

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The system is operated by a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The subway system is usually just referred to as the trains. Locals say I can take the train to your place to generally mean that they take the subway. The subway is never referred to as the metro, underground, or tube.

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On this page you'll find 17 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to subway, such as: metro, underground, chute, and tube.

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The subway is the largest part of Boston's public transit system, with more than 700,000 trips each weekday. It is often referred to simply as the T (the “T” from MBTA—the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority).

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“Tube” is a proper noun, it is another name for the London Underground. It is not British English for “metro” and “subway”. “Metro” in both British English and American English is a (possibly seperate) railway and train service that runs within a city with frequent trains and a short distance between stops.

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