Stories from the lines
Short articles about how the subways of Seoul, New York, London and Tokyo came to be, photo rides along a single line, and practical guides to typing the station names. Each one links to the lines in the game so you can ride what you have just read about.
Subway history
HistorySix first subways, and the cities that built themFrom a gas-lit steam line in 1863 to Seoul's Line 1 in 1974, how six cities opened their first underground railway.
HistoryWhy the New York subway has numbers, letters and three historiesThe map looks like one system because it has been one system since 1940. Before that it was three companies that did not much want to cooperate.
HistoryThe Tube map is a diagram, and that is why it worksHarry Beck drew it in 1931 after losing his job. It throws away distance on purpose, and that is the whole trick.
HistoryTokyo has two subways, and a loop on top of themTokyo Metro and Toei run different lines under the same streets. Above ground, the Yamanote loop ties them together.
HistorySeoul Line 5 forks at Gangdong, and we picked the wrong branch firstTwo branches leave the same station. We decided the longer one was the main line. The station numbers say otherwise.- HistoryFive lines that loop back on themselvesA ring, a spiral, a figure six and a loop with a tail. Not one of them ends where it begins in the way you would expect.
- HistorySame name, different stationSome stations that share a name are hundreds of meters apart. Some that look separate are one building. Sorting them out took more work than any other part of the data.
HistoryHow we check the station data, and the mistakes we foundHelloSubway has 58 lines and more than 1,300 stations. The first draft of that data was wrong in more places than we like to admit.
Photo rides
Photo rideAround Seoul on Line 2, the green loopForty-three stations, one circle, and a palace, a market, a library, a river island and a lot of coffee along the way.
Photo rideThe 7 train, from Flushing to Hudson YardsTwenty-two stations across Queens and under Manhattan, past a World's Fair globe, a jazz house, a lemon ice stand and a very large staircase.- Photo rideThe Circle line is not a circleSince 2009 it has been a spiral, and it still passes the oldest stretch of underground railway in the world.
Photo rideThirteen stops on the Yamanote loopA temple of forty-seven samurai, an electronics district, a pond garden, a crossing and a hundred-step staircase, all on one ring of thirty stations.
Typing guides
TypingWords, characters, keystrokes: how typing speed is measuredWPM sounds simple. The number depends on what you count as a word, when the clock starts and what you do with mistakes.
TypingHow a Korean keyboard builds a syllable, and what it means for station namesHangul has 24 basic letters and thousands of syllables. The keyboard has one key per letter, and the computer does the stacking.
TypingTyping Japanese station names in romajiMost Japanese computer users type the sound of a word in Latin letters and let the software turn it into kana and kanji. That is how this game works too.
TypingA ten-minute practice routine that uses the subwayA plan for getting faster without getting sloppy, built around short rides rather than long drills.
TypingThe easiest and hardest lines in HelloSubway, by the numbersA short line in Tokyo takes 160 keystrokes. The longest in New York takes more than 800. Here is how the ratings are worked out and where to start.