Why do people call a subway a metro?

Question

Why do people call a subway a metro? I thought metro was short for metropolis, which is another name for city. Why does every city with a subway system insist on just calling it "the metro?"

Answer 1

The name 'metro' derives from the very first 'underground' railways built in London (England) called the Metropolitan Railway and the Metropolitan District Railway. They were started in the 1860s to serve the city  - the 'metropolitan' area. Both remain as part of London Underground as the Metropolitan line and the District line. A report from the Times newspaper concerning the opening of the 'Met' can be found at:- http://mateengreenway.com/steampunk/Metr...

Answer 2

Why do you call a Metro subway like a sandwich company?

Metro is the shortform of metropolitan trains, this means those trains are not part of the general RR system.

Answer 3

all the other good names were taken

Answer 4

metro is english n subway is american

Answer 5

They don't. It's called different things in different places.  In New York, almost everyone refers to it as the subway.  In DC it's the metro, in London they call it the underground.

Answer 6

Because it travels within a metropolitan area (within the city).

Answer 7

yeah, that one guy was right, it's the "metro" in Washington DC...and Paris, France I think. It's the "subway" in New  York.

Answer 8

ANother early system to use the word "metropolitain" was the RATP in Paris.

In the UK a subway is what in the US you'd call an underpass.