Metrophile

A metrophile is a person whose hobby is the study of metro (subway, underground) systems.

Such people may indulge their hobby by:
*Traveling and visiting as many metro systems as they can.
*Attempting to find out about and/or visit hidden nooks and crannies of a metro system.
*Learning about and taking tours of abandoned metro stations.
*Learning about the technology, architecture, and history of various metro systems.
*Collecting material related to metro systems, such as maps, plans, transfers, and tickets, often from many cities around the world.
*Publicizing their metro systems (some metrophile websites contain more information about the system than the transit companies own).
*Designing expanded metro networks for various cities.
*Discussing their findings with others.
*In general, writing, learning, teaching, photographing, and thinking about metros.

Some metrophiles even manage to attract attention, approval, help, and even employment from transit companies.

However, in the Greater New York Area, they are instead known as railfans. Some of them have formed a well-organized lobbying organization.

Some also combine this with bus spotter or tram spotter to form "transit fan", a person who studies a city's entire urban public transit system.

One metrophile, a New Yorker named Darius McCollum, impersonated a range of New York City subway personnel for some time; he was so technically proficient at driving trains, helping repair crews, fixing trains, and even dealing with emergencies, that he served unpaid with some distinction (and a certain amount of complicity from actual personnel). This was illegal and he was repeatedly arrested and, despite a plea to have him treated for Asperger's syndrome, was finally imprisoned. Harper's Magazine published an article on him in May 2002.

Perhaps the most famous celebrity metrofan was film director Alfred Hitchcock, whose hobby was collecting and memorizing railway timetables, and who prided himself on being able to recite from memory every stop on the Orient Express.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu