I’d be much more compelled to take public transit if it looked anything like it does in Stockholm.
Moscow’s metro is not too shabby either.
Does Gozer the Gozerian take your ticket?
In much of the US it’s like pulling teeth to get funding for public transportation at all (since it’s seen as another ploy by teh gummint to take money away from hard-working folk and give it to the undeserving). The additional costs to make stations clean and attractive — or even clean and safe — would raise the howling to stratospheric levels.
The design of the stations is nice and all, but I’ve been impressed with cities where the stations were pretty plain but the system just worked. I’d long for the Boston subway to be clean, boring, and reliable.
I can think of two cool example of subway station decor, though. Kendall Square (Boston) used to have musical instruments (of a sort) hanging between the tracks that you could play by moving levers on the station wall. And Rathenauplatz (Nuremberg) had mosaics on the wall that didn’t look like anything when viewed straight-on, but at an angle they became this.
I have a big problem with the Stockholm designs: I don’t want to be constantly reminded that I’m underground, and especially that elements of the design may come crashing down upon me. But possibly that’s the intent: making people move faster, to get the hell out of there.
Well, Americans don’t deserve the transportation systems they have. No - wait. Perhaps they do. 
Even worse, after a while, you start to understand the designer’s point of view.
I was in Stockholm in 1982. I was very impressed by their stations. (From the link, they appear similar to how they did in '82; but even better.)
L.A. has some nicely done Metro stations:
http://kingrosearchives.com/gallery/Americana/CHA_24431.jpg
They even do art tours of some of the stations.
I want to be there!
Actually I came in to say just that…and also that I wish the system went to more places.
Didn’t I see a fancy looking Underground Station on Agents of SHIELD recently? Or some show like that.
Come to Boston…you can ride a filthy old system, with 120 year old stations that smell like a backed up toilet. That, and drunks/winos shaking cups full of change in your face, and endless breakdowns.
And while you are waiting for your 60 year old streetcar to arrive, you can amuse yourself by watching the rats in the railbed eat that garbage and food scraps thrown in by the ridership.
man, that Stockholm system is so clean!
Of course, if the Boston ridership were magically transferred to Stockholm, their system would be filthy in week!
Ah, Arlington St, station of a hot summer day…the smell of fermenting urine!
Although I could not find a site that listed them like the Stockholm site, this site: https://www.google.ca/search?q=montreal+metro+art&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=7-vKUt6iDMfd2AWBtYGYBg&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1267&bih=590 shows images from the Montreal Metro, each station having its own theme and all designed by different artists. And they run a cleaning machine through each station every night when the trains stop.
New York may not have spectacular stations like that, but the trains run all night.
For all we know from the pictures, it might still smell like Swedish pee.
Moscow’s subway system is indeed beautiful. One drawback is that the stations are widely scattered. It seemed like we were usually walking a mile or two to get to the nearest station, when I was there.
If you think that’s bad, try Alabama. There isn’t a single subway line in the entire state. Not even a commuter rail line. We do have buses, but the ones in my city only run on weekdays, and only till 6pm.