March 26, 2025, 9:01 am | Read time: 4 minutes
The magazine “Time Out” asked 18,500 people to rate public transport in their home city. The result is a ranking of the 19 cities that have the best public transport in the world. Spoiler first: Asia clearly stands out here.
While people in Berlin complain about public transport on a daily basis, people in other places are simply delighted with the functionality of their local public transport system. Time Out has now determined which city dwellers are most satisfied with their trains, buses, etc., in a ranking. For this, 18,500 transport users from more than 50 countries were surveyed. Germany did not make it into the ranking, but many Asian cities did. These are the cities with the best public transport worldwide.
Overview
Hong Kong Is the City with the Best Public Transport System in the World
According to Time Out, the huge skyscraper metropolis of Hong Kong satisfies 98 percent of residents surveyed with its public transport system. In addition to the iconic double-decker streetcars, this also includes the MTR (Mass Transit Railway). The ten-line rail network serves Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories up to the border with mainland China. Hong Kong’s popular public transportation system also includes air-conditioned buses and minibusses.
Asia Tops the List of Cities with the Nest Public Transport Systems
Eleven out of 19 cities in the ranking of the best public transport systems are in Asia. In addition to a number of cities in East Asia, the South is also represented, with Mumbai and Delhi in India, Southeast Asia with Jakarta in Indonesia, and the Middle East with Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar.
But why is it that public transportation in Asia seems to work so much better than in Europe and, especially, America, Australia, Oceania, and Africa? One obvious reason is probably that there is a broad-based local transport system in many conurbations. This is sometimes simply lacking elsewhere, or it is unreliable, or the individual lines are not connected at all or are poorly connected. In contrast, the local transport system in many large Asian cities seems to work. However, Time Out does not provide any precise details about what residents like about it or exactly how the votes were collected.
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These European Cities Have Particularly Good Public Transport Systems
In addition to the eleven Asian cities, there are eight other major cities that were praised by their residents in the survey for their public transport systems. And they are all located in Europe. The Europeans are led here by London in sixth place. 86 percent of Londoners speak positively of their 402-kilometer subway network, the Overground, the 675 bus routes, and the 30,000 or so Lime Bikes.
Although Germany is not represented in the ranking, two cities in the DACH region are. Vienna, for example, is seventh in the Time Out ranking. 84 percent of Austrian capital city residents are satisfied with their city network, which consists of subway, S-Bahn, tram, and bus services. According to the magazine, this is partly due to the ease of buying tickets, as the entire network is operated by Wiener Linien. Zurich is a little further down in the rankings. Here, 81 percent of respondents rewarded their Swiss homeland with positive ratings for the local public transport system. This consists of trams, cable cars, buses, and boats, all of which are covered by the Zurich Card.
The 19 Cities with the Best Public Transport Worldwide According to “Time Out”
- Hong Kong
- Shanghai, China
- Beijing, China
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Taipei, Taiwan
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Vienna, Austria
- Seoul, South Korea
- Mumbai, India
- Doha, Qatar
- Delhi, India
- Singapore, Singapore
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Brighton, England, United Kingdom
- Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Oslo, Norway
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Warsaw, Poland
- Tallinn, Estonia