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Rio de Janeiro Light Rail
Rio de Janeiro Light Rail
Overview
Native name	VLT Carioca
Owner	Municipality of Rio de Janeiro
Locale	Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Transit type	Light rail
Number of lines	4
Number of stations	43
Website	www.vltrio.com.br
Operation
Began operation	5 June 2016
Operator(s)	VLT Carioca
Character	At-grade
Number of vehicles	32 Alstom Citadis 402 trams
Train length	44 m (144 ft 4+1⁄4 in)
Headway	3-15 minutes; 30 minutes (night)
Technical
System length	28 km (17 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC (Alstom APS/SRS)
Average speed	15 km/h (9.3 mph)
System map
System map

Rio de Janeiro Light Rail (Portuguese: VLT Carioca) is a modern light rail system serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The system is among several new public transport developments in the region ahead of the city's successful bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[1] Its official name is VLT Carioca, the initialism "VLT" (which stands for veículo leve sobre trilhos, literally Light vehicle on rails) being equivalent to the English term light rail.

Overview

The first phase, consisting of a single 15-kilometre line between the Novo Rio Bus Terminal and Santos Dumont Airport and 18 stops,^[3] was inaugurated on 5 June 2016, two months ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony,^[4] with regular service beginning the following day. For the first month of operation, it was free of charge to ride, but only two trams were in service between noon and 15:00 on the section between Parada dos Museus in Praça Mauá and Santos Dumont Airport.^[1] The remainder of the line was opened and service was expanded to full-time operation on 12 July, although only 16 of the 18 stops on the line are in use.

The network uses 32 Alstom Citadis 402 low-floor trams carrying 420 passengers each. They are bi-directional, air-conditioned, have seven sections, and eight doors per side. The first five trams were built in Alstom's facility in La Rochelle, France and shipped to Rio in July 2015,^[5] and the remaining 27 were built in Alstom's facility in Taubaté, in the state of São Paulo.^[2]

There are no overhead lines installed along the entire route. Instead, Alstom has equipped approximately 80% of the line with its proprietary ground-level power supply (APS) system. The remaining 20% uses on-board supercapacitor-based energy storage (SRS), also developed by Alstom.^[6] Trams are still equipped with pantographs for use in the maintenance facility.

The remainder of the three-line, 28-km network will open in stages by the end of 2017.^{[needs update]} It is estimated that when the entire network is at full capacity, it would be able to eliminate 60% of buses and 15% of automobile traffic circulating in the city centre.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Rio's trams will run for the Olympics: Brazil's wire-free modern tramway opens, part of a major revitalisation project for Rio de Janeiro" (July 2016). Tramways & Urban Transit, p. 244. UK: LRTA Publishing.
^ ^a ^b "Rio de Janeiro tramway inaugurated". Railway Gazette International. 6 June 2016. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
^ "Light Rail". Companhia de Desenvolvimento Urbano da Região do Porto do Rio de Janeiro. 22 May 2011. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
^ Belen, Nelson (6 June 2016). "After Two Week Delay, VLT Opens in Rio de Janeiro". The Rio Times. Archived from the original on 7 June 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
^ "First Alstom Citadis Tram Delivered to Rio de Janeiro". Railway News. 10 July 2015. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
^ "UITP 2015: Alstom launches SRS, a new ground-based static charging system, and extends its APS solution to road transportation". Alstom. 1 June 2015. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2017.