What it means
خط مترو (khatt-e metro) means a metro line, a numbered or named underground railway route in a city. The phrase is a compound: خط (khatt) comes from Arabic, meaning line or route, and مترو (metro) is borrowed from French metropolitain. Together they form the everyday term for a specific metro route, such as خط یک (line one) or خط سه (line three) in Tehran’s system. The fuller official phrase is خط مترو شماره … (metro line number …), but in speech people simply say خط یک، خط دو, and so on.
How to use it
- کدوم خط مترو میری؟ (kodum khatt-e metro mi-ri?) “Which metro line are you taking?”
- خط دو تا میدون امام حسین میره. (khatt-e do tâ meydun-e Emâm Hoseyn mi-re.) “Line two goes to Imam Hossein Square.”
- باید خط مترو عوض کنم. (bâyad khatt-e metro avaz konam.) “I need to change metro lines.”
- این خط مترو هنوز کامل نشده. (in khatt-e metro hanuz kâmel nashode.) “This metro line is not finished yet.”
Cultural note
Tehran’s metro system, which began operations in 1999, is one of the largest in the Middle East, with multiple خطوط مترو (metro lines) spanning the city. It carries millions of passengers daily and is a central part of how Tehranis navigate traffic. Separate carriages are designated for women on each train. Several other Iranian cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz, and Ahvaz, also operate their own metro systems with expanding خطوط (lines).