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When traveling I am trying to avoid using the underground/metro/subway because I want to see the city I am visiting, but sometimes for long distances it is much quicker than any other form of transport.

So which city has the cheapest underground system? I'm looking for the cheapest available single fare price. It is okay if I have to use a pre-paid card as long as I can buy it right in the station.

On contender is Mexico City: Metro Prices in Mexico City in 2008

Photo credit: Peter Hahndorf

In 2008 the price for a single ride was 2 pesos or € 0.10 (US$ 0.15), it is now up to 3 pesos, but that is still very cheap.

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  • 11
    Cheapest for you or for the locals?
    – user141
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 14:31
  • 4
    Public transport in Tallinn is free to the passengers (but there is no metro, only bus, trams and trolleybus). Free public transport is a thing now, but mostly in small to medium-sized cities with bus networks but no metro.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Oct 4, 2014 at 6:56
  • @Relaxed though you have to be registered as a resident of Tallinn (essentially live there) to take advantage of it.
    – kiradotee
    Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 22:57

8 Answers 8

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According to PriceOfTravel.com:

*all prices converted into US dollars in mid-November, 2010

Price ranges reflect shortest to longest rides in most cities. Tourists are most likely to pay the lowest price.

  • Caracas, Venezuela (metro, bus) $0.12 – $0.28
  • Cairo, Egypt (metro) $0.17
  • Delhi, India (metro) $0.18 – $0.66
  • La Paz, Bolivia (bus) $0.19 – $0.50
  • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (light rail, bus) $0.22 – $0.76
  • Marrakech, Morocco (bus) $0.24 – $0.61
  • Mexico City, Mexico (metro) $0.24
  • Panama City, Panama (bus) $0.25
  • Quito, Ecuador (bus) $0.25 – $0.35
  • Hong Kong, China (tram, ferry) $0.26 – $0.39
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina (bus, subway) $0.28 – $0.32
  • Beijing, China (subway) $0.30
  • Dakar, Senegal (bus) $0.31
  • Lima, Peru (bus) $0.36 – $0.64
  • Auckland, New Zealand (bus, train) $0.38 – $1.38
  • Macau, China (bus) $0.41 – $0.83
  • Shanghai, China (metro) $0.45 – $1.35
  • Cancun, Mexico (bus) $0.49
  • Taipei, Taiwan (metro, bus) $0.49 – $2.14
  • Bangkok, Thailand (skytrain, subway) $0.50 – $1.34
  • Singapore, Singapore (subway, light rail) $0.61 – $1.53
  • St. Petersburg, Russia (tram, bus, metro) $0.61 – $0.71
  • Cartagena, Colombia (bus) $0.64 – $0.80
  • Dubai, UAE (metro) $0.68 – $2.18
  • Montevideo, Uruguay (bus) $0.76
  • Sofia, Bulgaria (tram, bus, metro) $0.80
  • Phuket, Thailand (bus) $0.83, $1.17
  • Moscow, Russia (metro) $0.84
  • Krakow, Poland (bus, tram) $0.86
  • Seoul, South Korea (subway, bus) $0.89 – $1.77
  • Prague, Czech Republic (tram, bus, metro) $1.00 – $1.44
  • Santiago, Chile (metro, bus) $1.00 – $1.20
  • Istanbul, Turkey (tram, bus, metro, ferry) $1.03
  • Cape Town, South Africa (bus) $1.14
  • Lisbon, Portugal (tram, bus, metro) $1.16 – $3.97
  • New Orleans, USA (tram, bus) $1.25 – $1.50
  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (metro, bus) $1.28 – $1.74
  • Budapest, Hungary (tram, bus, metro) $1.28 – $2.32
  • Athens, Greece (tram, bus, metro) $1.37
  • Madrid, Spain (metro, bus) $1.37
  • Monaco, Monaco (bus) $1.37
  • Rome, Italy (tram, bus, metro) $1.37
  • Tallinn, Estonia (bus, tram, trolley) $1.39 – $1.74
  • Dubrovnik, Croatia (bus) $1.48 – $1.85
  • Los Angeles, USA (bus, metro) $1.50
  • Chicago, USA (metro, bus) $1.54 - $1.73
  • Dublin, Ireland (tram, bus) $1.58 – $2.47
  • Nice, France (bus) $1.58
  • Tel Aviv, Israel (bus) $1.58
  • Washington DC, USA (metro) $1.60 – $5.00
  • Bruges, Belgium (bus) $1.64 - $2.74

I'll stop there, as they just get more expensive after that.

So according to this, Mexico City prices have gone up to US$0.24 now, so your best has now lost out to a few other cities, and now Caracas would probably take the prize.

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    I think it is Pyongyang, North Korea ;)
    – RoflcoptrException
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 14:18
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    Boy do those prices make me proud of Sydney sitting on $2.10-$8.20. OTOH you can travel up to 522.32km one way on that $8.20 fare, so there is that.
    – dlanod
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 23:30
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    That price for Shanghai is for the subway--3 Yuan for the shorter runs. Most bus fares are 2 Yuan.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 20:41
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    If we include busses, there are more than 30 city-wide networks which are entirely free. I think you could remove cities without a metro from the list.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 18:29
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    They forgot the Tashkent Metro in Uzbekistan. $0.18
    – Crazydre
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 18:52
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I'd like to add a second answer, because it's one that is cheaper but not generally accessible to do individually as a traveller.

"The Pyongyang Metro, in North Korea was designed to operate every few minutes. During the rush hours, the trains can operate at a minimum interval of 2 minutes.

It is also one of the cheapest in the world to ride, at only 5 KP₩ (about $0.03 USD) per ticket."

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Some Metros aren't on PriceOfTravel.com list. Others are out of date. The list has been updated since Mark Mayo's answer but still outdated again quickly:

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  • The Kiev is also 3 UAH on current website, although my (probably wrong) recollection is Summer 2014 the fare was only 2 on metro, 1.50 on bus.
    – Andrew Lazarus
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 19:19
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Also you can enjoy cheap transportation in Iran, Like:

  • $0.14 Tehran, Iran (Capital City)
  • $0.17 Shiraz, Iran
  • $0.08 Mashhad, Iran

Prices in March 2015.

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You can take the London Underground for free between terminal 5 and terminals 2/3 at Heathrow. You will need an oyster card or contactless payment card though.

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Using metro in Caracas (Venezuela) is for free now.

With sky-rocketing inflation, printing the tickets costed more than the ride so they made it free.

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  • A link to the site of the metro company in Caracas to back that up?
    – Joren Vandamme
    Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 11:27
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As of Jan 2018 exchange rate of USD-INR, Delhi Metro has lowest fare of just 10 rupees or 16 US cents which I think is the lowest or second lowest in the world. enter image description here

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    There's more than 2 examples just in the answers to this question that cost less, so it cannot be "lowest or second lowest".
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 18:59
  • @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas: All the examples above are 3 to 6 years old. A lot has changed in these 3 to 6 years.
    – Rolen Koh
    Commented Jan 7, 2018 at 6:07
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    So prove it. "I think" is not a valid justification for anything.
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Commented Jan 7, 2018 at 16:51
  • @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas: I think is a valid justification in the case where the person has done sufficient research on the topic, is only short of having conclusive data and also has some fair idea about the topic. Besides this link should give you some idea about fares in metros around the world. Check the column "Fare": mic-ro.com/metro/…
    – Rolen Koh
    Commented Jan 8, 2018 at 18:14
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    Whatever that page is, is woefully incomplete. It doesn't even list prices for a good chunk of the other suggested locations in the other answers. Regardless, since you've not indicated in your answer any of this "sufficient research", your justification remains "I think".
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Commented Jan 8, 2018 at 19:20
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A ride on the Tashkent Metro in Uzbekistan costs $0.18, so it's definitely one of the cheapest

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