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What is the world's largest subway system?

It's a common trivia question, for which I've heard several different answers. They can't all be right, right?

The current Atlantic Monthly buzzes in with the right answers, using a few good metrics.*

Route MilesPassengers/Yr.StationsTrain Cars

London253886 mil2753 954

Moscow1653 200 mil1651 800

New York2301 400 mil4686 400

Tokyo1812 700 mil2763 609

Conclusions:

1. Muscovites pack themselves into relatively few cars on a relatively small system. They find it somewhat soothing, then, to ride through the world's most beautiful stations.
2. For NYC's overwhelming superiority in rolling stock, yuh'd think there'd always be room to stretch your legs at rush hour.**
3. Consecutive stations on the Tube, by arithmetic mean, are almost one mile apart! Perhaps the airport runs skew the statistical distribution?
4. Did anyone else see the Flintstones episode in which Fred's car broke down, and he and Barney had to take the subway to work? Most anti-transit screed-in-cartoon-form ever.

The article (The Nation In Numbers, "Stop and Go", pp. 60-61) states that no major city but NYC has all-night subway service. Transportation journalism always gets this one wrong. Chicago has 24-hour service on its Red and Blue lines. That service used to be universal on the "L", but it was discontinued because of budget cuts in the 1990's.

Update: The article does not explicitly give Moscow or London its superlatives. I can believe that Seoul and Mexico City have higher ridership than Moscow, but I am pretty sure London has the most route miles worldwide.

*No truth handler, you!
**Actually, I can tell you that several lines, such as the C, G, M, and R, do consistently have excess capacity at rush hour. Others, like the Lexington Avenue line, are crush-loaded.