Rio de Janeiro’s LRV notice to bid should be released in August

One of the stars of Porto Maravilha – a program to revitalize the port area of the state capital –, the project for implementation of the Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), budgeted at $548.2 million, is closer to get started and hit the city center streets. Last week, the release of $249.17 million in funds from the Brazil Federal Budget (OGT) was approved by the federal government.
To ensure the remaining $299.01 million, a public hearing and a public consultation will be opened early next month to prepare the bid to select the concessionaire responsible for the project. The notice to bid will be released until August.

“We already have the feasibility studies, the schedule and all permits required to begin the necessary interventions in the region. The beginning of the contract of works is planned for January 2013,” said the CEO of Companhia de Desenvolvimento Urbano da Região do Porto do Rio de Janeiro (Cdurp), Jorge Arraes.

The light vehicle includes not only the region of the Port, as well as a considerable part of the city center. Points of great movement, such as Avenida Rio Branco, Cinelândia and Santos Dumont airport, also will receive stations for the new vehicle, as the new images that iG obtained show.

The system of the LRV, or modern tram, as it was called in the Cdurp, will have six tracks distributed in 42 stations along 30 kilometers of tracks, with 26 kilometers of round trip tracks and four kilometers of single tracks. The average distance between stations will be 400 meters, and it is expected that the headway ranges from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the track. Each coach holds up to 450 passengers.

Track 1 (orange) starts at the bus terminus and ends at Equador station. Track 2 (green) goes from Central do Brasil to Cidade do Samba. Track 3 (blue) is also part of the Central do Brasil, but towards the Santos Dumont airport. Central do Brasil is also the starting point of the track 4 (red), which passes through avenues like Sete de Setembro, Rio Branco and Almirante Barroso and comes to Avenida Antônio Carlos. Tracks 5 (yellow) and 6 (dark pink) start at the bus terminus towards Central do Brasil and Cidade do Samba, respectively.
The payment system will be similar to that of European countries that have already adopted the LRV. Upon entering the train, the passengers must validate their tickets. CDURP estimates that the passage cost around $1.5 and that the new modal system should integrate the Single Ticket system.

The first two Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) tracks will be delivered to the World Cup. The other four should come into operation until the 2016 Olympic Games. According Arraes, the main objective of the new means of transport is to integrate metro stations, trains, boats, BRT, conventional bus networks and airport. LRV will serve areas that currently do not even have bus stops, connecting all means of transport in the region, he said.

New model

Although inspired by models such as those used in Europe, Rio de Janeiro’s LRV has an innovation. The trains will not have overhead wires and will be powered by two energy sources: a third power rail in some stretches and stops as well as a supercapacitor (like a battery). Arraes explains that these technologies have already been used, but individually. “It is the first time ever that a LRV will put together these systems, which will allow our trains to run without overhead wires. Besides being more economical, it is safer.

Arraes said that the LRV project will be one of the great assets of Porto Maravilha with regard to sustainability. We still have not the calculation done, but certainly the use of this means of transport will have a major positive impact in reducing carbon emissions in the region. Arraes does not rule out the possibility of converting this reduction in carbon credits to be traded on the Rio’s Green Stock Exchange.

Fonte: iG