In the late 1990s, a calico kitten named Tama began hanging out near Kishi Station, the last stop on the Kishigawa railway line in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture. As Tama’s popularity grew, she was promoted to “super station manager” and knighted by the prefecture’s governor in 2008. Though Tama has gone to cat heaven, her feline former assistants have taken her place, and cats — as well as other animals — now serve as station masters elsewhere in Japan too.

Only two cities on the African continent offer an underground subway system: Cairo, Egypt, and Algiers, Algeria. Cairo's metro, Africa's oldest, began operations in 1987 and currently has three lines running underneath the city (with more planned). Over 500 million people ride Cairo's subway every year. The Algiers subway, meanwhile, opened in 2011 after almost three decades of planning and construction. It has one line, skirting the Mediterranean Sea.

The Aiguille du Midi cable car leaves from the small French mountain town of Chamonix and ascends more than 9,000 feet to the summit of Aiguille du Midi mountain. From there, you can see the top of Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe. The whole journey takes just 20 minutes and gives visitors an incredible and unparalleled view of the Alps.

Imagine not having to pay to ride the bus or the subway. Since 2013, Tallinn, Estonia, has offered fare-free public transportation to all registered residents using a personalized smart card and carrying an ID. Although it's not the only fare-free system in the world, it has inspired similar networks in other cities and countries.

You’re probably quite familiar with the subway in New York City and the Tube in London, but neither can claim the title of the deepest subway in the world. That title goes to the Pyongyang Metro in North Korea. That subway system exists, in parts, some 360 feet below ground. Most of the subway is closed to foreign tourists, however.

Serving up to 225,000 daily commuters and 65 million passengers per year, New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal is the busiest bus station in the world. Both commuter buses from nearby suburbs and long-distance buses from all over the U.S. pull into the Midtown Manhattan terminal, which is situated just one block away from Times Square and the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey.

The Greater Moscow Metro is the busiest metro system in Europe, with 2. 56 billion riders reported in 2019. With 15 lines and 278 stations, this behemoth system carries around 9 million passengers a day. Opened in 1935, the system is also famous for its stations’ ornate designs, which include 428,900 square meters of marble tiles used across the system.

When it first opened in 1885, the Kusttram (Coast Tram) in Belgium only carried passengers a few miles, from Nieuport to Ostende-Middelkerke. Today, the Kusstram traverses nearly the entire coast of Belgium, from Knokke-Heist by the Dutch border to La Panne by the French border. From beginning to end, the 42-mile ride takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes.

With 160 miles of tracks, 26 routes, 493 trams, and 1,763 tram stops, Melbourne has somehow preserved its tramway system —the largest in the world. Other big Australian cities have mostly done away with their tram systems, but Melbourne’s wider streets have allowed the city to accommodate cars as well as trams. Today, over 200 million passengers use Melbourne's trams annually.

Boston, Massachusetts, set the precedent for public transport in America. In 1630, the city opened the country’s first publicly operated ferryboat, the first recorded instance of public transportation in the colonies. Nearly 200 years later, in 1897, the city opened the country’s first subway system. New York City’s first subway didn’t open until 1904.

Join the 3.6 million passengers each day who travel through Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station. The rail station first opened in 1885 and was a less-traveled hub until new rail lines were introduced in the 1920s. Today, the station has 36 platforms, serving as the primary connecting hub for traffic between West Tokyo and the major districts in the city.

The country’s famous windmills may have been your first clue, but the Netherlands has a long history with wind energy. In 2017, its national railway company of the Netherlands announced a significant milestone: Its entire system of electric passenger trains — around 600,000 in daily use — had fully converted to wind power.

Opened in 2006, Portland’s Swiss-built tram system shuttles passengers from the South Waterfront to the Oregon Health and Science University in just four minutes. The Big Apple’s Roosevelt Island Tramway opened in 1976 and connects Roosevelt Island to Manhattan’s Upper East Side by traveling 250 feet above the East River.

At almost 12,000 feet above sea level, Bolivia's La Paz is one of the highest cities in the world. Its urban cable car system, Mi Teleférico, is the world's largest and highest. With eight lines now operating throughout the city, Mi Teleférico is estimated to transport about 250,000 passengers daily across its roughly 20-mile network.

The St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line in New Orleans started operating in 1835 as a railway, originally connecting New Orleans to what was then the suburb of Carrollton (now part of the city proper). When buses began operating in the city in the mid-20th century, most of the streetcars disappeared, but preservationists fought to save the St. Charles line.

London’s Metropolitan Railway opened on January 10, 1863, marking the world’s first underground railway. The line traveled from Paddington (then Bishop’s Road) to Farringdon Street, the first of many that would be built over the next century. Over two decades later, on December 18, 1890, the underground metro set another first: the first underground electric railway in the world.

Washington’s Puget Sound is responsible for the state’s massive ferry system. With 22 ferries and 20 ports of call, Washington State Ferries serve around 25 million passengers a year. You can catch a ride to ports all over Puget Sound, and all the way up to Sidney, British Columbia.

If you’ve toured London, chances are you’ve done it in one of the city's iconic red double-decker buses. In the early 1900s, several bus companies competed to become the leading transport provider in London, and the London General Omnibus Company stood out from the pack with their bright red buses. London Transport officially adopted the color for all their buses in 1933, and the consistently red buses remain today.

New York City’s Penn Station is nothing short of massive. Situated beneath Madison Square Gardens, the underground station serves a staggering half a million people on an average weekday. Six MTA subway lines run through the station, as do Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) services, meaning around 1,300 trains enter and leave the station each day.

The U-Bahn first opened in Berlin, Germany, in 1902. Its full name is “Untergrundbahn,” which translates as “Underground Railway.” There are other German subway systems that use the same moniker in Munich, Hamburg, and Nuremberg, as well as a U-Bahn in German-speaking Vienna, Austria. But Berlin’s U-Bahn is the most extensive network in Germany, with 10 lines and 173 stations.