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Openings and Construction Starts Planned for 2023

1,100 kilometers of new transit lines from Canada to Saudi Arabia will open in 2023.

Last year, three lines Americans have been waiting on for decades—the Green Line extension in Boston, the Crenshaw Line in Los Angeles, and the Silver Line to Dulles Airport outside Washington—finally opened. Though they took years to be completed, they were greeted enthusiastically by riders and political officials content to bring better service to more people.

Similar reception greeted new rail and bus lines opening in Athens, Cairo, Guadalajara, Helsinki, Paris, and dozens of other cities around the world. And much more is planned for 2023: Finally, Long Island Rail Road service will reach the sub-sub-sub-basement of Grand Central Terminal. Toronto’s Eglinton light rail line will connect the city crosstown. And Honolulu, Gebze, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Thessaloniki will get their first metro services.

This year, I leveraged data assembled in the Transit Explorer database to identify which projects opened in 2022, which are planned for opening in 2023, and which will be under construction this year—for a later opening date.

On separate posts, I analyzed trends in transit investments around the world and examined accessibility to transit stations in the US versus Canada, England, and France.

London’s Crossrail project opened in 2022, providing new cross-city connections across the capital. Credit: Geoff Henson on Flickr (cc).

The Transit Explorer database now includes all fixed–guideway urban transit systems (meaning rail and bus rapid transit) across North America, South America, Africa, and nine Western European countries, plus metro systems throughout Europe and in parts of the Middle East. Transit Explorer now includes about 29,200 urban transit stations and about 6,700 urban transit lines (covering 78,000 kilometers). (It also includes some intercity rail systems.) These are the geographies for which I provide details about transit line openings below.

Istanbul’s metro network—spanning continents—is becoming one of the world’s largest.
Bogota is a bus rapid transit haven—but a new metro system is planned.

Data can be viewed freely on Transit Explorer or purchased for non-commercial use in Shapefile, GeoJSON, and CSV formats for those who would like to use the data for research or other uses, such as in Excel, R, ArcGIS, or QGIS.

DOWNLOAD TRANSIT EXPLORER DATA

Previous compilations of new and planned transit projects on The Transport Politic can be found here: 2009 | 2010 | 2011  | 2012  | 2013  | 2014  | 2015  | 2016  | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

New transit investments completed in 2022

Overall, 517 kilometers of new fixed-guideway urban transit services opened in 2022 across the countries covered by the Transit Explorer database. Of these, the countries with the largest increases in kilometers were the United States (196 kilometers); Egypt (77 kilometers); Mexico (60 kilometers); France (39 kilometers); and the United Kingdom (34 kilometers).

Azerbaijan

  • Baku: 2 km Purple Line metro extension from Avtovagzal to Khojasan

Canada

  • Montreal: Creation of 11 km SRB Pie-IX bus rapid transit route through the east side of the city

Denmark

Egypt

  • Cairo:
    • Line 3 metro extension west to Kit Kat (4 km)
    • Creation of 72 km Cairo Light Rail system (really a metro system) heading east into the new capital area

Finland

  • Helsinki: 7 km extension of the M1 metro line

France

  • Paris:
  • Rennes: Creation of new 13 km Line B automated light metro
  • Toulouse: Creation of 3 km Teleo aerial tram line

Greece

Italy

  • Milan: Opening of the first phase of automated M4 light metro, 5.5 km from the airport into the city

Israel

  • Haifa: Creation of Rakavlit aerial tram line (4 km)

Luxembourg

  • Luxembourg: Extension of T1 tramway by 1.2 km to the south

Mauritius

  • Port Louis: 10 km extension of the Metro Express light rail system to the south

Mexico

  • Guadalajara: Creation of 41.5 km Mi Macro Periferico bus rapid transit line, a circumferential route around the city
  • Mexico: 18 km extension of Mexibus Linea 1 bus rapid transit line in the northern suburbs

Poland

  • Warsaw: Extension of M2 metro line west and east, totaling 6 km

Spain

Turkiye

  • Bursa: Creation of 8 km T2 tramway line
  • Istanbul:
    • 8 km extension of M4 to Asian-side airport
    • 1.5 km extension of M7
    • Creation of F4 funicular system, a 1 km line

United Kingdom

United States

Planned 2023 openings

Almost 1,100 kilometers of fixed-guideway urban transit is planned to open in 2023 in the parts of the world covered by Transit Explorer. Of these, about half will be in the form of metro rail services. The countries with the largest expansions planned for opening are the United States (242 kilometers); Saudi Arabia (169 kilometers); Turkiye (127 kilometers); Mexico (98 kilometers); and Canada (78 kilometers). That said, all investments aren’t equal: 57 percent of new US route kilometers will be bus rapid transit or arterial rapid transit. In many other countries, new kilometers are much more likely to be metro rail or light rail services: Saudi Arabia (100 percent); Turkiye (83 percent); and Canada (93 percent).

Brasil

  • Rio de Janeiro: TransBrasil, 32 km bus rapid transit route

Canada

Chile

  • Santiago:
    • Line 2, extension to El Pino, 5 km
    • Line 3, extension to Plaza de Quilicura, 3 km
    • Creation of Teleferico Bicentenario, 3 km aerial tram

Egypt

  • Cairo
    • Line 3, 6 km extension to Cairo University
    • Line 3, 7 km extension to Rod el-Farag

France

Greece

Israel

  • Tel Aviv: Creation of 24 km Red Line light rail corridor, which includes some subway segments through the city

Italy

  • Catania: 3 km extensions of the Metropolitana system
  • Genova: 0.9 km extension of the automated light metro Metropolitana to Canepari
  • Milan: Extension of M4 9 km into the city center
  • Naples: 3.5 km extension of Line 6 light metro line

Mexico

Netherlands

  • Rotterdam: Extension of Line B metro to Hoek van Holland, 2 km

Nigeria

Panama

  • Panama: Line 2, 2 km extension to the airport

Russia

  • Moscow
    • Extension of metro line 8A, 5 km
    • Extension of metro line 10, 6 km
    • Extensions of metro line 11, 19 km
    • Creation of metro line 16, 15 km line

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

  • Dakar: Extension of the Train express régional commuter rail to AIBD, 19 km

Spain

Turkiye

  • Ankara: 3.5 km extension of M4 metro to 15 Temmuz Kizilay Milli Irade
  • Gebze: Creation of 16 km M1 metro
  • Istanbul:
    • M3 extensions to Barkirkoy IDO (8.5 km) and Kayasehir Merkez (6 km)
    • M5 extension to Sancaktepe Sehir Hastanesi (3 km)
    • Creation of M8 metro, 14 km
    • M9 extension to Atakoy, 11 km
    • M11 extensions to Gayrettepe (3 km) and Halkali (33 km)
    • Tramway T5 extension to Eminonu, 1 km
    • Creation of T6 tramway, 8.5 km
  • Izmir:
    • M1 metro extension to Kaymakamlik hatti, 7 km
    • T1 tramway extension, 1.5 km
    • Creation of T3 tramway, 10 km

United Kingdom

United States

Under construction in 2023

Among the countries in the Transit Explorer database, there will be roughly 1,900 kilometers of new fixed–guideway urban transit projects under construction in 2023, but planned to be opened after 2023. About 43 percent of those kilometers will be in the form of metro services. 554 kilometers will be under construction in the United States, 305 kilometers in France, and 172 kilometers in Canada.

Algeria

Argentina

  • Buenos Aires: Belgrano Sur commuter rail line, 4 km extension

Austria

Azerbaijan

  • Baku:
    • Green Line metro extension to Mohammed Hadi, 10 km
    • Purple Line metro extension to B-4 station, 1 km

Belarus

  • Minsk: Zelenaluzhskaya Line metro extension to Slutsk Gastinets, 4 km, opening 2024

Belgium

  • Antwerpen: Antwerpse premetro Kerkstraat route, 2 km, opening 2026
  • Brussels: T10 tram, linking Rogier to Neder-Over-Heembeek, opening 2024
  • Charleroi: Metro Châtelet Branch (light rail), 4 km, opening 2026
  • Liège: New tramway, 12 km, opening 2024

Brasil

  • Curitiba: Linha Verde bus rapid transit, 5.5 km
  • Fortaleza: Linha Leste metro, 6 km, opening 2024
  • Rio de Janeiro: Line 4 extensions, 3 km
  • Salvador:
  • Sao Paulo:
    • Line 2 metro extension, 9 km, opening 2026
    • Line 6 metro new line creation, 16 km, opening 2026
    • Line 17 monorail project, 8.5 km, opening 2024
    • Line 9 Mendes-Varginha commuter rail line extension, 2.5 km

Bulgaria

  • Sofia: M3 metro extension to Vladimir Vazov, 4 km

Canada

Chile

  • Santiago:
    • Line 6 metro extension to Isidora Goyenechea, 1 km, opening 2027
    • Line 7 creation of new metro line, 29 km, opening 2027

Colombia

  • Bogota:
    • Line 1 metro new line, 24 km, opening 2028
    • RegioTram de Occidente new regional rail line, 40 km, opening 2024
    • Avenida 68 bus rapid transit route, 17 km, opening 2026
    • NQS Sur bus rapid transit extension, 4.5 km
  • Medellin: Calle 12 Sur bus rapid transit extension, 1.5 km

Czechia

  • Prague: Line D metro extension, 1.5 km, opening 2029

Denmark

Egypt

  • Cairo: Cairo Light Rail Transit (metro) extensions, 22 km

France

Germany

Greece

Israel

  • Jerusalem:
    • Red Line tramway extensions to Neve Yaakov and Hadassah, 7 km, opening 2025
    • Green Line new tramway line, 22 km, opening 2025
  • Tel Aviv:
    • Purple Line new light rail line, 30 km, opening 2028
    • Green Line new light rail line, 40 km, opening 2028

Italy

  • Bologna: Line 1 tramway new line, 23 km, opening 2026
  • Cagliari: Line 1 tramway extension to FS station, 3 km, opening 2024
  • Florence: T2 tramway extension, 3 km
  • Genova: Metropolitana automated light metro extension to Martinez, 1 km, opening 2024
  • Milan: M1 metro extension to Monza Bettola, 2 km, opening 2024
  • Naples:
    • Line 1 metro extensions, 10.5 km, opening 2024
    • Line 7 metro, 6 km
    • Line 10 automated light metro, 14 km
    • Linea 11 metro to Giugliano-Aversa, 15 km
  • Rome: C automated light metro extension to Fori Imperiali, 4 km, opening 2024
  • Turin
    • Line 1 automated light metro extension to Cascine Vica, 5 km, opening 2024
    • Line 3 commuter rail connection to Caselle Aeroporto, 2 km
    • Alba-Ceres commuter rail connection, 4 km

Ivory Coast

  • Abidjan: Metro, 36 km, opening 2025

Luxembourg

Mexico

Morocco

Netherlands

  • Amsterdam: Tramway extension, 1 km

Norway

Panama

Peru

  • Lima:
    • Line 2 new line, 27 km, opening 2024
    • Line 4 metro to Gambetta, 8 km

Portugal

Romania

  • Bucarest: M2 metro extension to Tudor Arghezi, 2 km

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Turkiye

  • Ankara: Ankaray metro extension to Sogutozu, 1 km
  • Bursa: BursaRay light rail extension to Sehir Hastanesi, 5.5 km, opening 2024
  • Istanbul:
    • M1B metro extension to Halkali, 11 km, opening 2024
    • M4 metro extension to Icemeler, 9 km
    • M5 metro extension to Sultanbeyli, 9 km, opening 2024
    • M7 metro extension to Kabatas, 4 km, opening 2024
    • M7 metro extension to Hastane, 9 km, opening 2025
    • M7 metro extension to Esenyurt Meydan, 14 km, opening 2029
    • M10 metro extension to Pendik Center, 5 km
    • M12 metro new line, 15 km, opening 2024
  • Izmir: M2 metro new line, 15 km, opening 2026
  • Mersin: M1 metro new line, 15.5 km, opening 2026

Ukraine

  • Dnipro: Dnipro Metro extension, 6 km, opening 2024
  • Kyiv: M3 metro extension to Marshala Hrechka, 6.5 km

United Kingdom

United States

Venezuela

  • Caracas:
    • Line 5 metro, 9.5 km
    • MetroCable La Dolorita aerial tram, 4 km
    • Metro de Los Teques Line 2 extension, 10 km
  • Valencia: Line 2 light rail extension, 2.5 km

22 replies on “Openings and Construction Starts Planned for 2023”

Thank you for all your hard work! I’ve been checking back for the 2023 explorer for months now and I’m super excited to see it’s out.

Always anticipate the update!

One opening in 2023 that’s not on the list is the Philadelphia Line 15 trolley. The line closed in 2020, but it will reopen with an extension on the east end, which was built as part of the I-95 construction project.

https://www.inquirer.com/transportation/philadelphia-route-15-trolleys.html

Metro Transit’s B Line arterial bus rapid transit line is starting construction in 2023 and is anticipated to open in 2024. Several stations have already been constructed as part of other projects and Hennepin County is planning to add one-way bus lanes for a substantial portion of Lake St.

https://www.metrotransit.org/b-line-project

Thank you for the updates! Are there plans to include VIA Rail for Canada, the Maya Tren in the Yucatan, or the new Baltimore Amtrak tunnel?

Many thanks for your article!
Is it possible to add those two Belgian projects?
Liège’s new tramway (~12km) is still on construction. According to local press, opening is now set for April 2024. [ https://letram.be/ ]
And Brussels just launched the construction of its new tram line (T10), linking Rogier to Neder-Over-Heembeek. The objective is to open it in Autumn 2024. [ http://move-nohw.brussels/fr/project ]

Hey! I always enjoy reading these articles every year.

One thing I’ll note is that Austin’s Expo Center and Pleasant Valley BRT lines are shown in this list as opening in 2024, but they’re actually scheduled to open in 2023. Construction is still ongoing, but it won’t be much longer before testing/operational-readiness training begins. The lines are currently scheduled to open in summer or fall of 2023. Would you mind updating this list to reflect that? Thanks!

I don’t know if you include construction starts planned for 2023 in the under construction list. If so, there are two other major projects in Toronto which have recently progressed further towards construction. Yonge North Subway Extension awarded a contract for construction of upgrades to the existing Finch station to prepare it for construction, and according to the City of Toronto, Metrolinx anticipates construction starting 2023: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/transit-in-toronto/transit-expansion/yonge-north-subway-extension/.
Also, the large PPP for the GO Expansion project to electrify, upgrade, and resignal the GO Transit commuter rail network to allow frequent electric train servicre on Metrolinx-owned rail corridors is anticipated to begin construction in 2023 (https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/04/19/go-transit-train-electrification-ontario/), though technically other constituent parts such as the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation bridge for commuter trains over a freight line, the Highway 401 rail tunnel for more tracks on the Kitchener Line (Weston Subdivision), and multiple station upgrades and renovations are already underway. You should check out GO Expansion/Regional Express Rail it is a crazy large project to basically make GO Transit a European-style regional rail system (the German Deutsche Bahn will even take over operations).
I don’t know if you are tracing Australia or New Zealand but a lot is going on over there too. New Crossrail-style underground CBD suburban rail tunnels are currently under heavy construction in Brisbane (Cross River Rail), Melbourne (Metro Tunnel), and Auckland (City Rail Link), in addition to the Sydney Metro automated metro (City and Southwest Line under construction, with West and Western Sydney Airport Lines both to start construction within a year or so), Brisbane Metro #NotAMetro busway program, and Perth suburban rail extensions including one to the airport that opened last year.

I believe you’ve omitted the Brightline intercity rail extension West Plalm Beach to Orlando Airport, opening 2nd quarter 2023. I don’t know how you want to add the planned extensions first to the Orlando Convention Center (to be shared with SunRail Commuter Rail) and further extensions to Tampa. Neither of which has begun construction.yet. Also, I believe Brightline West (Rancho Cucamionga, CA to Las Vegas, NV) is to begin construction this year.

All exciting projects! A small correction: the Ottawa Trillium line south extension does not (unfortunately) include electrification — it’ll still be operated with DMUs.

Happy to report from last week’s trip to Oahu that HART trains are testing on Phase 1, and construction on Phase 2 is down a little past Honolulu International Airport. Nice looking system, although it will be better once it starts to serve settled places.

Honolulu rail was announced in February 2006 as going from Kapolei to Manoa, the home of the University of Hawaii’s main campus, and the single largest source of traffic on the island. It was described as either 26 or 28 miles at a cost of $2.5 billion. By the time it was put to a questionable vote in 2008, it had been shortened to 20.1 miles due to cost, and the cost was now $3.7 billion. By the time the FTA bought into it in 2012, the cost had increased to $5.12 billion, and kept increasing until it hit $12.499 billion in 2021. In 2022, the rail authority begged the FTA to let them shorten it to 18.9 miles, terminating at the “civic center” at a cost of $10 billion. The FTA has agreed in principle, but has yet to approve an amended full funding grant agreement that would release at least some of the funds that have been frozen since 2014 due to the lack of a realistic financial plan. To complete the final 1.2 miles to Ala Moana, the rail authority estimates the cost at $1.3 billion, but no timetable has been set.

The interim opening to the carcass of the condemned stadium is set for 6/30, a mere seven years later than the originally announced interim opening of 2016.

Thanks for the update. The satellite view was very helpful, will that be coming back? I see the Tren Maya, Baltimore Tunnel, and all of Asia were added. Any chance of seeing Via Rail in Canada, the Alaska Railroad (do tourist trains not count?), Penn Access Phase II, or the new Long Bridge in DC and Virginia expansion in the future? Also, East Side Access is complete but still shows as under construction and Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express now continues past Rutland to Burlington, Vermont.

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