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50 free Subway trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Subway trivia questions with answers. Subway trivia comes in two flavours, and this quiz serves both. The first half covers the sandwich chain: the 17-year-old who borrowed $1,000 from a physicist in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965, the Pete's Super Submarines name, the switch to Subway in 1968, the growth to more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, the $5 footlong, the Eat Fresh slogan, the Jared Fogle era and its end, the Irish court that ruled the bread was cake, and the 2023 sale to Roark Capital. The second half goes underground: the world's first underground railway in London in 1863, why only 45 percent of the Tube is under ground, New York's 472 stations and 24-hour service, Harry Beck's map and Mind the Gap, Paris's Art Nouveau entrances, Moscow's palatial stations, Budapest and Glasgow's 1896 lines, Boston's first American tunnel, the pneumatic prototype under Broadway, Beijing's record length, Stockholm's art gallery, Montreal's rubber tyres, Tokyo's pushers and baseball's Subway Series. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
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Q 01What was the profession of the man who lent 17-year-old Fred DeLuca $1,000 to open the first Subway in 1965?
Physicist
Peter Buck suggested the shop as a way for DeLuca to pay for college; the two remained partners for the rest of their lives.
Q 02What was the Subway chain's original name when its first shop opened in 1965?
Pete's Super Submarines
Radio ads made 'Pete's Submarines' sound like 'pizza marines', and the shop was renamed Subway in 1968.
Q 03How much did Fred DeLuca borrow to open the first Subway?
$1,000
He was 17 and hoping to fund medical school; the chain he built was sold to Roark Capital for $9.6 billion in 2023.
Q 04Roughly how many Subway locations were there worldwide as of September 2023?
Over 37,000
Across more than 102 countries and territories, making it the largest single-brand restaurant chain in the world by outlets.
Q 05In 2008 Subway launched a famous promotion selling every regular one-foot sandwich for how much?
$5
The $5 footlong jingle became one of the decade's most recognisable ads; franchisees later rebelled as costs rose.
Q 06What two-word slogan did Subway use to stress its freshly baked bread?
Eat Fresh
The company's ovens in every store were the point; in 2020 Ireland's Supreme Court ruled the bread too sugary to count as bread for tax purposes.
Q 07Which country's Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that Subway's bread was too sugary to be legally bread?
Ireland
For VAT purposes it had to be classed as confectionery, or cake; the ruling made headlines worldwide.
Q 08Jared Fogle became Subway's US spokesman in 2000 after losing how much weight on its sandwiches?
About 245 lb
He lost it between 1998 and 1999; Subway severed ties in 2015 when he faced federal charges.
Q 09Where was Subway's headquarters located in 2023, when Roark Capital bought the chain?
Shelton, Connecticut
Subway moved from Milford to Shelton, Connecticut in 2023 and announced a relocation to Miami in 2024; Roark Capital, its owner since 2023, is based in Atlanta.
Q 10What job title does Subway give the staff who assemble your order?
Sandwich Artist
The trademarked title has been a running joke since the 1990s; the company's careers page still uses it.
Q 11Which private-equity firm agreed to buy Subway in August 2023 for about $9.6 billion?
Roark Capital
Roark already owned Arby's, Dunkin' and Jimmy John's; the DeLuca and Buck families had run Subway privately for 58 years.
Q 12Which regional name for the submarine sandwich originated in the Philadelphia area?
Hoagie
Hero is New York's word, first recorded in 1937; grinder belongs to New England and po' boy to Louisiana.
Q 13The world's first underground passenger line opened in London on 10 January 1863. Which company ran it?
The Metropolitan
Steam locomotives hauled gas-lit carriages between Paddington and Farringdon; the City and South London of 1890 was the first deep-level electric tube.
Q 21Which city's subway is the world's longest metro network by route length, at over 900 km?
Beijing
Shanghai, at just over 800 km, is second by length but first in annual ridership and station count, with 415 stations.
Q 22Which metro system carries the most passengers per year, around 3.8 billion?
Shanghai
It only opened in 1993; Shanghai also has the most stations of any system, 415, though New York's 472 count is the traditional figure for individual stops.
Q 23Budapest's Line 1, opened in 1896 for Hungary's millennium celebrations, holds which distinction?
Oldest electric underground on the Continent
Q 14Despite the name, roughly what share of the London Underground is actually below ground?
About 45%
Much of the network in outer London runs on the surface; the 'Tube' nickname refers to the round deep-level tunnels.
Q 15The New York City Subway has more stations than any other system in the world. How many?
472
Or 423 if you merge stations linked by transfers; the system opened on 27 October 1904 and runs 24 hours a day.
Q 16In which year did the New York City Subway open?
1904
27 October 1904; it now runs 248 route miles and carried some 2.3 billion riders in 2025, the busiest system in the Western Hemisphere.
Q 17The Beach Pneumatic Transit, New York's secret 1870 subway demo, moved its single car how?
Compressed air
Alfred Ely Beach's giant fan blew the car about 300 feet under Broadway from the basement of a clothing store; it closed in 1873.
Q 18The Paris Métro's first line opened on 19 July 1900 to coincide with what event?
The World's Fair
Hector Guimard's Art Nouveau entrances went up at the same time; 86 of them survive across the 321-station network.
Q 19Which architect designed the Art Nouveau entrances of the Paris Métro?
Hector Guimard
Eighty-six of his wrought-iron and glass entrances still stand; a few have ended up in museums as far away as New York and Chicago.
Q 20The Moscow Metro, famed for its chandelier-lit stations, opened in which year?
1935
It began with one 11-km line and 13 stations and is now the busiest metro in Europe, with 304 stations by 2026.
Emperor Franz Joseph inaugurated it; only the City and South London Railway of 1890 is older among electric undergrounds, and UNESCO listed it in 2002.
Q 24The Glasgow Subway, opened in December 1896 and never extended, consists of what?
A single circular line of 15 stations
It is the world's third-oldest underground metro after London and Budapest; the press nickname 'Clockwork Orange' is rarely used by locals.
Q 25The oldest subway tunnel in North America opened on 1 September 1897 in which city?
Boston
The Tremont Street subway carried streetcars under downtown Boston and was made a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
Q 26Which Underground employee designed the schematic London Tube map in 1931?
Harry Beck
Management was sceptical of the unpaid side project, tried it in a 1933 pamphlet and paid him ten guineas for the card edition.
Q 27How much was the Tube map's designer paid for the artwork of its first card edition?
Ten guineas
Roughly £650 in 2020s money, plus five guineas for the poster; the map became the template for transit diagrams worldwide.
Q 28The London Underground's 'Mind the gap' warning was coined around 1968 because of what problem?
Curved platforms leaving a gap to straight trains
Sound engineer Peter Lodge's own test reading ended up as the recording; a restored Oswald Laurence version returned to Embankment in 2013.
Q 29In baseball, a 'Subway Series' is a matchup between teams from which city?
New York
Yankees against Mets today, historically Yankees against Giants or Dodgers; the 2000 World Series was the first Subway World Series since 1956, and the Yankees won it 4-1.
Q 30Which two teams met in the 2000 World Series, the first Subway World Series since 1956?
Yankees and Mets
The Yankees won four games to one for their third straight title; the Dodgers and Giants had left for California in 1958.