Fact File: Panama Metro – Line 2
Panama City is the largest city and capital of Panama and has an urban population of almost 900,000.
The first line of the Panama Metro, in Panama City, was inaugurated in April 2014. This line, Line 1, is served by three-car and five-car Alstom Metropolis trainsets. Thales provided the control centre and the automatic train supervision system, the network infrastructure, communication and security solutions.
Of the four remaining planned lines, one is currently under construction: Line 2.
Where: Line 2 will service the eastern part of the city. Panama City has a major issue with road congestion and due to the narrow and elongated configuration of the metropolitan area, road expansion here would be impracticable – let alone undesirable. The Panamanian government notes that the eastern regions of the city have a commute of ninety minutes to two hours to the city centre, and their mobility conditions are generally precarious. The new metro line will not only reduce travel times, it will be an environmentally friendly, clean, safe and reliable transport option for the population.
Line 2 will have a length of 29km and run from Parque Urraca to Felipillo. Construction has been divided into three phases: from San Miguelito to Nuevo Tocumen, from San Miguelito to Parque Urraca and from Nuevo Tocumen to Felipillo. The stretch from San Miguelito to Nuevo Tocumen, Phase 1, will feature a 21km elevated viaduct with 16 stations. All stations will have taxi and bus areas. Those closer to the city centre will make more room available for this, while those stations in areas where car ownership is higher will have parking. The aim is to discourage driving into the city.
The construction project was awarded to the Line 2 Consortium, consisting of Odebrecht (Brazil) and FCC (Spain). Construction then began in 2015. Delivery of the line is expected in April/May 2019, with first test runs expected in December 2018. There are also plans to open the metro partially in January to provide public transport during the Catholic World Youth Summit being hosted in the city.
Line 2 Capacity: It is estimated that when fully complete, Line 2 will be able to transport 40,000 passengers per hour. To meet demand at peak times the headway between trains is proposed at three minutes, which would require 21 five-car trainsets.
Rolling Stock: In June this year Alstom delivered the first of 21 Metropolis trains for Line 2. Alstom will also be providing its Urbalis CBTC solution so that trains can run safety at higher speeds with reduced headways. The trains will be fed through a system of rigid catenary lines of 1500V DC.
Rolling Stock Maintenance: Line 2 will have facilities for cleaning and parking the rolling stock as well as workshops where preventive and corrective maintenance will be performed.
Once the entire system is complete, it is estimated that the metro will be used by a million passengers a day.
