First Alstom Citadis Tram Delivered to Rio de Janeiro

Image Courtesy of Alstom Transport

Alstom have delivered their first Citadis tram to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The tram has been in transit for the past 20 days and is the first of 32 tram sets to be delivered. Alstom will be producing four of these trams in their La Rochelle facility. The order for the trams were made back in 2013 through the VLT Carioca consortium, as part of an integrated catenary-free tramway system. The other 27 trams will be produced and delivered from Alstom’s Taubat facility in Sao Paulo.

Alstom Citadis Trams in Rio de Janeiro

Alstom will supply Rio de Janeiro an integrated tramway system, which includes 32 44-metre-long Citadis trams along with power supply, signalling, and telecommunication system. The tramway will use a combination of APS – a power supply that run through the third rail in the middle of the running lines – and supercapacitors – modules on the roof of the tram which stores energy and regenerates it during braking, to make the line 100% catenary-free. The line will be 26 kilometres long and will include 32 stations, The line due to be partially opened in mid-2016, in time for the Olympic Games.

Alstom is pleased to hand over the first Citadis tram to Rio de Janeiro, the first city in Brazil to be equipped with a full tramway system that will be connected to buses, metros and trains, and which enhances intermodality while reducing congestion and pollution, declared Michel Boccaccio, Senior Vice President for Alstom Transport in Latin America.