Metro (also known as ‘subway’, ‘metropolitan railway’ or ‘underground’)

An electric railway for the transport of passengers with the capacity for a heavy volume of traffic and characterised by exclusive rights-of-way, multi-car trains, high speed and rapid acceleration, sophisticated signalling as well as the absence of level crossings to allow a high frequency of trains and high platform load. Metros are also characterised by closely spaced stations, normally meaning a distance of 700 to 1 200 m between the stations. ‘High speed’ refers to the comparison with trams and light rail, and means here approximately 30 to 40 km/h on shorter distances, 40 to 70 km/h on longer distances.