Alstom Opens Rio Tramway Ahead of Olympic Games
Alstom celebrated the start of operations of its first tramway line in Rio de Janeiro, in time for the 2016 Olympic Games. The celebration took place with VLT Carioca concession company and the city of Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 2016.
The Rio Tramway network is made up of three lines with a total of 28km of line and 31 stations. The section of line opened this week is 7km long, running between Santos Dumont to Parada dos Museus (Praça Maua). A second 7km section will open prior to the Olympic Games. The network is integrated into other modes of transport, and will improve traffic in the city.
The project was launched by Rio municipality as part of an effort to modernise the port area. The VLT Carioca consortium awarded the works to Alstom in September 2013. Their portion of the project included the provision of 32 Citadis trams, electrification, signalling, telecommunications and depot equipment.
In keeping with Rio’s traditional architecture, VLT Carioca chose Alstom’s catenary-free power solution utilising APS, which supplies power via a third rail on the ground and Supercapacitor modules on the roof of the tram which store and regenerate energy.
The seven-car, 44m long Citadis Tram operating on the Rio Tramway has capacity for 420 passengers, translating to 200,000 passengers daily. The first five trams were designed and manufactured in in La Rochelle in France. The remaining 27 will be built in Taubaté, which is the first tram factory in Brazil.
Michel Boccaccio, Senior Vice President of Alstom in Latin America, said:
“Alstom is proud to deliver Rio’s tramway line in time for the summer Olympic Games. This is a great moment for its residents and for visitors coming from all over the world as the tramway will help to reduce congestion and pollution while offering a transport mode that is comfortable, reliable and efficiently connected to other forms of mobility.”
