Brasília tram

Citadis tram car on display for Brasília

The tram network in the Brazilian capital Brasília is currently under construction. The tram is known as the VLT (Veículo Leve sobre Trilhos) or Metrô Leve . The tram in Brasília was originally supposed to go into operation for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. These plans were abandoned in 2012 after a legal dispute, among other things, and their completion will take place later. The tram network should help relieve the Metrô Brasília, car traffic and bus traffic. It will have a track width of 1435 mm. It will be the first modern tram system in Latin America.

The tram operator will be the Metrô-DF (Companhia do Metropolitano do Distrito Federal), which also operates the underground ( Metrô Brasília ). The first route should have a length of 22.6 kilometers. On part of the route, the railway will run without overhead lines so that the cityscape of the UNESCO World Heritage Site is not impaired. It will lead from the future Asa Norte terminal in a north-south direction through the city to the airport . There will be two stations where you can change to the subway. A second, shorter route is currently in the planning phase.

At the moment you can see an Alstom Citadis tram in Brasília , on which there is also an exhibition with information boards about the planned tram route.

history

The Brastram consortium, in which Alstom Transport is also involved, was selected for the construction of the first phase . According to the original plans, the first section with a length of 8.7 kilometers should open in 2010. On June 25, 2009, a partnership agreement was signed with TAM from Montpellier, which was supposed to support the planning for the construction of the tram. The first work finally began in the first half of 2010. By 2010, the project was stopped five times by the courts.

In 2011 it was announced that the entire first stretch would not be ready by the 2014 World Cup and that only the section from the airport to the south subway terminal with five stops could be completed. In September 2012 it was announced that Brasília had abandoned the completion of the tram route for the World Cup in summer 2014. It would have taken at least 24 months to complete.

Planned operation

Planned route for tram line 1 (purple)

Routing

The tram will run from the airport to the south wing of the Plano Piloto and meet the subway there in the Asa Sul (TAS) terminal. From there it goes through the western part of the two wings of Plano Piloto along the W3 road to the north, while the underground runs through the middle of the wings. In the north it ends at Terminal Asa Norte (TAN), where it will be possible to change to the subway again.