Monorail is inaugurated in SP and attracts curious people

The beginning of the so-called “controlled monorail tour”, which connects Vila Prudente Metro station and the new Oratorio station, both in the Eastern Zone of São Paulo, occurred without major problems this Saturday.

Partial operation -and free, for now- of the monorail will be on Saturdays and Sundays, from 10AM to 3PM, and must be expanded to the whole week within the next two or three months, according to the Metro, which runs the project. After this period, this stretch should be put into full operation.

The State Secretary of metropolitan transport, Jurandir Fernandes, present at the first journey of the train, praised the lack of surprises. “Despite being a new technology, the many hours-test that we had allowed us not to have any surprise”, he said.

About the delayed delivery of the work, begun in 2010, Fernandes said it was because of environmental licensing, which did not allow the overthrow of about 50 trees on avenida Luiz Ignácio de Anhaia Melo, on which runs the work, and forced the Metro to seek more expropriations. Those are the most expensive trees in São Paulo, he said.

During the inauguration of the service, the turnstiles were released promptly at 10AM. The first train travelled between 10:06 and 10:09. There are 18-minute intervals between trains during that trial period.

Integration with Line 2-Green of the subway is still in progress.

There were flaws in the escalators at both stations, they stopped suddenly, but Metro officials did not know to explain the reason. ThyssenKrupp, responsible for technical equipment, is investigating the causes.

Users liked what they saw. The trader Mohamed Hussein Majdou, 65, said “I usually go by car to the Vila Prudente station, but now I can go by monorail. I have been expecting this for a long time”. Mohamed Hussein Majdou has a mattress store next to Oratório station, but he declared the impossibility to sell the car yet.

The general auxiliary worker Juacaz Marciano da Boa Morte, 57, said he “was afraid when travelling in the first car, which has a large front window allowing the vision of the narrow rail ahead of the composition-without driver. But you get used to it”; says the resident of Itaquera.

The part to São Mateus station is scheduled for the end of next year. The full path is between the Ipiranga station by train and Cidade Tiradentes, with 18 stations and 26.6 km.

The total estimated investment is of $ 2,855,103,360.00.

Fonte: Valor