The dynamic through-soil interaction between underground station and nearby pile supported structure on viscous–elastic soil layer, under vertically incident S wave, is numerically studied. To this end, a commercial software for finite element analysis, ANSYS, has been further developed and enhanced for calculation in frequency domain, in which damping of hysteretic type can be considered for both the soil and the structures, so that structure–soil–structure interaction (SSSI) can be investigated making use of a direct methodology. The influence of arrangement of structures, shaking direction of seismic wave, distances between structures, shear wave velocity, damping of soil, burial depth and number of spans of underground structure on SSSI, in terms of horizontal acceleration magnification factor of ground structure, is addressed. For ground structure, different lengths of pile, stiffnesses, styles, and numbers of storeys and structures are considered. Maximum acceleration responses are also presented for 12 seismic inputs. Arrangement and shaking direction are two of the most important factors. The system response can be either amplified or attenuated according to the distance between adjacent buildings, which has been related to dynamic properties of the overall system. Those neighboring low-slung buildings around underground structure are heavily affected. •We reviewed studies about interaction of ground structure and underground structure.•ANSYS has been further developed and enhanced for damping of hysteretic type.•We discussed the influence of subway station on the neighboring ground structure.•We examined the influence parameter of the dynamic interaction.