The first subway system was proposed for London by Charles Pearson, a city solicitor, as part of a city-improvement plan shortly after the opening of the Thames Tunnel in 1843. After 10 years of discussion, Parliament authorized the construction of 3.75 miles (6 km) of underground railway between Farringdon Street and Bishop's Road, Paddington. Work on the Metropolitan Railway began in 1860 by cut-and-cover methods—that is, by making trenches along the streets, giving them brick sides, providing girders or a brick arch for the roof, and then restoring the roadway on top. On Jan. 10, 1863, the line was opened using steam (steam engine) locomotives that burned coke and, later, coal; despite sulfurous fumes, the line was a success from its opening, carrying 9,500,000 passengers in the first year of its existence. In 1866 the City of London and Southwark Subway Company (later the City and South London Railway) began work on their “tube” line, using a tunneling (tunnels and underground excavations) shield developed by J.H. Greathead. The tunnels were driven at a depth sufficient to avoid interference with building foundations or public-utility works, and there was no disruption of street traffic. The original plan called for cable operation, but electric traction was substituted before the line was opened. Operation began on this first electric underground railway in 1890 with a uniform fare of twopence for any journey on the 3-mile (5-kilometre) line. In 1900 Charles Tyson Yerkes (Yerkes, Charles Tyson), an American railway magnate, arrived in London, and he was subsequently responsible for the construction of more tube railways and for the electrification of the cut-and-cover lines. During World Wars I and II the tube stations performed the unplanned function of air-raid shelters.

Many other cities followed London's lead. In Budapest, a 2.5-mile (4-kilometre) electric subway was opened in 1896, using single cars with trolley poles; it was the first subway on the European continent. Considerable savings were achieved in its construction over earlier cut-and-cover methods by using a flat roof with steel beams instead of a brick arch, and therefore, a shallower trench.

In Paris, the Métro (Chemin de Fer Métropolitain de Paris) was started in 1898, and the first 6.25 miles (10 km) were opened in 1900. The rapid progress was attributed to the wide streets overhead and the modification of the cut-and-cover method devised by the French engineer Fulgence Bienvenue. Vertical shafts were sunk at intervals along the route; and, from there, side trenches were dug and masonry foundations to support wooden shuttering were placed immediately under the road surfaces. Construction of the roof arch then proceeded with relatively little disturbance to street traffic. This method, while it is still used in Paris, has not been widely copied in subway construction elsewhere.

In Canada, Toronto opened a subway in 1954; a second system was constructed in Montreal during the 1960s using Paris-type rubber-tired cars. In Mexico City the first stage of a combined underground and surface metro system (designed after the Paris Métro) was opened in 1969. In South America, the Buenos Aires subway opened in 1913. In Japan, the Tokyo subway opened in 1927, the Kyōto in 1931, the Ōsaka in 1933, and the Nagoya in 1957.

Automatic trains, designed, built, and operated using aerospace and computer technology, have been developed in a few metropolitan areas, including a section of the London subway system, the Victoria Line (completed 1971). The first rapid-transit system to be designed for completely automatic operation is BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay area, completed in 1976. Trains are operated by remote control, requiring only one crewman per train to stand by in case of computer failure. The Washington, D.C., Metro, with an automatic railway control system and 600-foot- (183-metre-) long underground coffered-vault stations, opened its first subway line in 1976. Air-conditioned trains with lightweight aluminum cars, smoother and faster rides due to refinements in track construction and car-support systems, and attention to the architectural appearance of and passenger safety in underground stations are other features of modern subway construction.