Photos via The Coolist

Our beloved Metro isn’t always so beloved, what with daily escalator outages, months-long closures of entryways, single-tracking and the occasional cracked rail or other mishap.

But it’s cool, according to the upscale lifestyle website The Coolist, which placed the Metro—well, at least part of it—on its list of “The World’s 10 Coolest Subway Systems.” The Coolist praises Metrorail’s subterranean stations as “the most iconic and visually progressive subway system in the United States.” And, that may be true of the Harry Weese-designed concrete eggshell cocoons, which the list also goes on to say are “awash in indirect light.’ Sometimes, though I’ve found Metrorail stations can also feel somewhat cold and dim.

Still, there’s no dispute that Weese’s fabric of clean lines and parabolic arcs separate Metrorail from its counterparts in other U.S. cities. But how “cool” is it?

Once you look at the other nine systems The Coolist mentions, not very. The other subway lines, spotted in cities around the world, are either fantastically ornate or awash in color and light. Moscow’s Komsomolskaya Station, for example, was constructed during Stalin’s Second Five-Year Plan, yet its marble corridors and meticulous friezes are as lavish as any tsar’s chambers. Paris’ Métro, with its low, arced ceilings, is an art nouveau treasure. Metrorail is positively brutalist.

And then there are the color-and-light systems like Taipei, Montreal and Frankfurt, Germany. Makes one wish Metrorail’s planners had borrowed inspiration from the Washington Color School.

Check out Pyongyang, North Korea. The isolated capital of the world’s wackiest nation introduced its 14-mile subway system in 1969, and hasn’t really updated it at all, but it’s surprisingly graceful:

But the most enviable of all the world’s underground transit systems has to be Stockholm’s, which, The Coolist notes, is sometimes called the “longest art gallery in the world.” Exposed bedrock limned in warm backlighting and contemporary paint jobs? Amazing. Just look:

Of course, like everything else the Swedes do, it’s atmospheric as shit.

Nevertheless, Metro is proud of its perceived coolness. “Finally some love!” writes spokesman Dan Stessel. “Our job today, as responsible stewards of the system, is to rebuild and restore it to deliver the level of service our customers expect and deserve.” So, when all the intended repairs and upgrades are done, perhaps Metrorail will be as efficient as it is stylish.