World's first metro station marks its 157th anniversary today

The world's first metro station is celebrating the 157th anniversary of its launch.

Report says the first metro station started functioning in London on January 10, 1863. The first line initially operated on steam power, which, in 1890, was replaced with electric power. The second overland metro appeared in New York back in 1868.

Today, metro lines are available in 178 cities in 56 countries. As of early this year, the Beijing metro is the world's longest subway (699.3 km). With its 23 lines and 405 stations, it serves an average of 10.5 million people daily (with a record high of 13.7538 mln people fixed on July 12, 2019) and 3.8484 billion passengers a year. China is also a leader for the number of subways with underground transport present in 40 cities of the country.

Baku's first subway was built on November 6, 1967. Its first section consisted of five stations: Baksovet (now Icherisheher) - 26 Baku commissars (now Sahil) - April 28 (currently May 28) - Ganjlik - Nariman Narimanov.

The subway extends to 36.63 km and accounts for 25 stations, with their number to be increased to 76 by 2030 and their length to 119.1 km. Baku metro serves 590,000-608,200 passengers daily and 222 million passengers per annum.