This February, the first section of line 2 of the Rio de Janeiro tramway, officially called VLT Carioca, began to operate between Praça XV and Saara stations. The introduction of these light rail trams aim to reduce the number of buses and cars entering the city center. The first stage was inaugurated in mid 2016.
It is estimated that the tram network will help reduce the number of buses by 66% and by 15% the number of private vehicles entering the center of Rio.
In the planning and construction of the network, a team of fifteen Argentine engineers and technicians belonging to Benito Roggio Transporte (BRT) , controller of Metrovías , the subte porteño operator, participated “by providing the know-how and experience gained in different projects implemented In Argentina, “BRT said in a statement.
The light rail vehicles were provided by Alstom. They correspond to the Citadis model, similar in appearance to the one that circulated on the Tram of Puerto Madero and similar to the trams that will be put into operation soon in the Premetro . The energy is provided through a third rail at ground level, the APS system developped by Alstom.
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