Nerd Alert: ‘Subway Builder’ Video Game Lets You Build Your Dream Transit System

A new video game lets you design your own subway system in 26 U.S. cities, report Daniel Zawodny and Greg Morton in The Baltimore Banner. 

The game, Subway Builder, uses Census data to simulate ridership on Metro lines. Players can start with a budget or let their imagination go wild in a budget-free sandbox mode. After designing their system based on real topography and urban conditions, players can adjust service frequency and other factors to make their virtual commuters happy and make their proposed systems turn a profit. 

Colin Miller, the game’s creator, says he hopes it will spark hope for bigger, better transit systems in U.S. cities. “Miller said the idea for the game came to him when he was stuck on a delayed car on New York City’s subway. After searching for a game like ‘Subway Builder’ and coming up empty, he decided to build it himself.” The game, he notes, uses “Mediterranean pricing,” the cost per mile of building transit overseas. According to Miller, because of the high price of of building transit in the United States, where the per-mile cost is on average double that of other countries, “It’s the only way the game would be playable.”