Citadis Trams Ready for Rio Olympics 2016

Aug. 5, 2016
Alstom provided an integrated tramway solution in time for the Olympic Games, which includes 32 Citadis trams, as well as electrification, signalling, telecommunications and depot equipment.

The Olympic Games 2016 opened August 5 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Part of improving its transportation infrastructure, the city launched a call to tender in 2012 for a 17-mile tramway to connect the city’s principal land, sea and air routes.

The city of Rio awarded the project to VLT Carioca, a consortium made up of OTP (Odebrecht Transport), CCR, Invepar, Riopar, RATP Dev and Benito Roggio, which will lead the project and select the integrated tramway solution provider. Alstom was awarded the project in September 2013.

Alstom supplied 32 Citadis trams, as well as electrification, signaling, telecommunications and depot equipment. Rio opted for a 44-meter-long tram, which includes seven cars. It can carry up to 420 passengers at a time and up to 300,000 passengers per day.

The Rio tram is catenary free, combining Alstom’s APS (ground-level power supply) with supercapacitors, providing unlimited power supply.

The first five trams were designed and built in La Rochelle, France. Alstom opened a new tramway manufacturing line in Taubaté, Brazil, in March 2015, where the remaining 27 Citadis trams will be produced. The manufacturing facility is 16,000 m² and has the capacity to produce about 8 trams per month.

A first portion of the line (7km), which connects Santos Dumont airport to Parada dos Museus, entered service in June 2016 and another portion (7km) from Parada dos Navios to Rodoviária is in service since July 2016, and the remainder of the line will be operational in 2017.