Think Railways

Alstom’s first Citadis tram for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, arrived at Rio after 20 days of transit from Alstom’s facility in La Rochelle, France where four more others are being produced. This is the first of the 32 tramsets ordered from Alstom by the city of Rio de Janeiro through the VLT Carioca consortium in 2013 as part of an integrated catenary-free tramway system . The 27 other trams will be produced at Alstom’s recently inaugurated Taubaté facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The integrated tramway system supplied by Alstom to Rio includes 32 44-metre-long Citadis trams along with power supply, signalling and telecommunication systems. The tramway line will be 100% catenary-free combining APS – which supplies power via a third rail positioned centrally between the running lines – and supercapacitors – modules installed on the roof of the tram which store energy and regenerate it during braking. The line, which is 28 kilometres long and includes 32 stations, will be partially opened in mid-2016 in time for the Olympic Games.