Ahmed Hassan, 18, who was living with foster parents in Sunbury-on-Thames at the time appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh prison.
He is charged with trying to murder passengers on a District Line underground train heading to central London from the southwestern suburb of Wimbledon.
Hassan is also accused of making a bomb using the highly volatile triacetone triperoxide (TATP) – known as “the mother of Satan” – or another explosive substance. The homemade bomb was packed with knives, screws, and metal shrapnel.
Flames engulfed the carriage but no one was seriously hurt in what authorities said was Britain’s fifth major attack of 2017.
Mr Justice Haddon-Cave remanded Hassan in custody until a two-week trial which is due to begin on March 5.
The teenager came to the UK from Iraqi in 2015 and claims both his parents were killed there.