Rapid Transit Railways

The book I read to research this post was The Rapid Transit Railways of the World by Henry F Howson which is an excellent book which I bought from a secondhand bookshop. This book was written in 1971 so maybe rather out of date but I like the fact that it examines this type of railway on a city by city basis. This type of railway is typically underground and electric although in many cities they have some routes that are either overground or cuttings made into the rock. London had the first underground railway which happened to be steam in 1863. The first electric underground railway was also built in London in 1890. Having an electric system didn't require extensive ventilation and also enabled them to build it deeper under the ground. The London system was also the first to be predominantly underground. It's interesting to note most of the London Underground was built by 1906. They would need an eleven lane highway to bring in the amount of people per hour into London on 1 route assuming there's an average of 2 per car that the Underground Train brings in on 1 route per hour. Toronto had the first Underground Railway in America. I think New York has the most extensive Underground Network in the world although much of it isn't underground. China of course is rapidly catching up & Tokyo has a very extensive network. An interesting fact is when Berlin was divided both parts had an underground system but in East Berlin many of the stations were disused and the trains wouldn't stop at them. That's probably been remedied since it was unified.