How to Make a Minecraft Subway System

Save resources with powered minecarts. If you're in Survival mode and don't have many resources, make a powered minecart by placing a furnace over a minecart in the crafting area. As long as you keep the furnace loaded with fuel, it will push the minecart ahead of it down ordinary rails. If you do have plenty of gold and redstone, move on to the next step for a smoother, faster ride.

• This type of subway cannot make sharp U-turns, and will have trouble climbing slopes.^[2]

Stockpile powered rail system supplies instead. For top speed, you'll need one powered rail for every 37 normal rails, or one for every 7 if you want to move unoccupied storage carts.^[3] You can power a flat passenger subway with as little as one powered rail for every 79 normal rails, but this will be much slower.^[4] You'll also need one redstone torch for each powered rail.

• To make a normal rail, place one stick in the center of the crafting area and fill the left and right columns with six iron ingots.
• To make a powered rail, replace the iron in the above recipe with gold ingots, and place redstone dust below the stick.
• For a redstone torch, place redstone dust directly above a stick.

Lay out the rails. Lay out normal rails along your tunnel, but occasionally place a powered rail instead. See the instructions above to decide how frequently to place the powered rails.

• Powered rails cannot be used in turns. Use regular rails instead.
• If your subway changes altitude, you'll need to use powered rails more frequently on the incline.

Power the powered rails. The powered rails are off by default. To get them active (bright red), connect them to redstone power. You can use a circuit, but the simplest way is to place a redstone torch adjacent to each powered rail. The torch may be below the rail, or next to it on the same level.

Place stops at the stations. To make the cart stop automatically, place any solid block in the path of the rail. Place a powered rail leading up each side of this block and over the top, but do not power them. This will stop the cart when it arrives. To turn on the power and give the cart a good boost on its way to the next stop, place a button or lever on the wall next to the stop.^[5]

• If you use the subway for two-way travel in a multiplayer world, consider building two sets of tracks and placing signs to prevent collisions.

Understand how pistons work on rails. This is all about timing and clever use of pistons. When you push a track with a piston, the track doesn't break — it's actually pushed aside! If that piston is a sticky piston, then you can retract the piston and the track will come back with it. That means that with good timing, you stop a minecart by using a redstone signal to expand a piston, which pushes out a rail right before the minecart hits this gap in the tracks. Unlike in the real world, the minecart won't just fly over this gap from its momentum. Instead, the cart will come to a complete stop when it runs out of track.

Set up the stop. Use a redstone-powered piston system to stop the minecart:

• Choose a powered rail for the minecart to stop on.
• Place a redstone-powered piston to push the rail in front of the powered rail out of the way, blocking the cart.
• Place sticky piston behind the powered rail, which can retract to pull that rail out of the way.
• Place a second sticky piston opposite the first one, with a solid block in front of it so it can push it behind the stopping minecart.

Make the stop automatic. Sending a redstone signal to the front piston will stop the cart, but how do you send the signal automatically? One way is to have the cart move over a detector rail. Don't place this rail in front of the pistons, and make sure the redstone dust "wire" is long enough that the pistons move after the cart has passed through. It may take some experimenting to get the timing right.

• Since the cart won't stay on the detector rail, connect the signal to a redstone comparator to maintain the signal after the detector rail is turned off.

Make automatic starts. To start the car again, send a redstone signal to the two sticky pistons, and to the powered rail. Suddenly, from the minecart's point of view, it has its back against a block and an open track laid out before it. Since the minecart is on a powered rail, it will move the only way it can: forward.

• You can use the same detector rail and split the signal into two branches, one longer than the other. You'll need many redstone repeaters on the "start" branch signal so it shows up about thirty seconds later than the "stop" signal.

Reset the track. Bring the track back to normal by cutting the redstone signal, pushing the block and rail back into place.

Make a multi-route system (optional). You now have a system that can transport carts back and forth between two stations. If you need more destinations, build a system of track switches: a lever with redstone leading to the curved part of the track. Have a sign with redstone lamps on each side so when you flip the switch for where to go, it changes the track and lights up the sign to indicate where the track leads.

Make a Nether Portal. Nether portals are made from burning obsidian, as described in the linked article. As you might expect, the flaming obsidian portal doesn't lead to a safe and happy place. If you have diamond equipment and are willing to face the challenges, though, the Nether can give you the fastest subway possible.

Plan your route. Each block you travel in the subway moves you eight blocks in the normal map.^[6] It's best to build both portals before you start digging, since the portal placement on the other side won't always line up exactly.

Build a half-block tunnel between the two portals. Fortunately, mining goes pretty fast in the Nether. Dig out a space between your two portals, then place a floor of stone slabs, stairs, and/or glass in this space. These are the only blocks that mobs will not spawn on in the Nether.^[7] This is important, since torches will not stop your subway getting overrun by zombified piglins.

• If you're building a narrow tunnel with no walkway (just a minetrack), you can use any solid materials. See below for ways to avoid mobs spawning on the track.
• The walls and ceiling can be made from any materials.

Avoid large spaces. Even on these special flooring materials, ghasts can spawn in an area 5 x 4 x 5 blocks. Keep the tunnels and stations smaller than this in at least one dimension to avoid this happening.

Place glass panes or iron bars two blocks above the floor. Leave a gap of air above the floor, then place glass panes or iron bars above that. Mobs can spawn on rails even if they're placed on slabs. These blocks will prevent this from happening. Unlike solid blocks, the glass or iron will not suffocate the passenger as you ride.^[8]