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What is the difference between Underground train and Subway? Is there any difference between these 2 words? Are both used/common in your country?
Nov 20, 2017 9:46 PM
Answers · 5
2
In the United States, the word "subway" always means an underground train. We would never say "underground train" but we would understand it. Often we use the specific name of the local system; in Washington, D.C. we would more likely say "the Metro" instead of "the subway," and is Boston we would say "the T" instead of "the subway." (I believe that in London they talk about "the tube" or "the underground" and a "subway" is pedestrian tunnel). To confuse things completely, there is an historical term, the "Underground Railroad." It was not a railroad and was not underground; it was a secret system of routes and safe houses by which African-American slaves escaped from the slave states into free states and Canada.
November 21, 2017
1
They mean the same thing. I hear subway in the United States, particularly New York City. I hear underground and also the tube in the United Kingdom.
November 20, 2017
They both have the same meaning, however, "underground railway/train" is commonly used in the UK while "subway" is used in other vicinities such as the United States, etc.
November 20, 2017
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