Alstom’s first Citadis tram for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, arrived at Rio’s port 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^[1] in 2013 as part of an integrated catenary-free tramway system^[2]. 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 32 144-foot-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 17 miles long and includes 37 stations, will be partially opened in mid-2016 in time for the Olympic Games.

“Alstom is pleased to hand over the first Citadis tram to Rio de Janeiro, the first city in Brazil to be equipped with a full tramway system that will be connected to buses, metros and trains, and which enhances intermodality while reducing congestion and pollution,” declared Michel Boccaccio, senior VP for Alstom Transport in Latin America.

Alstom, which designed, validated/commissioned and is maintaing the complete tramway system, is currently managing the construction of 8 tramway systems including Cuenca (Ecuador), Rio (Brazil), Sydney (Australia), Nottingham (U.K.), Lusail (Qatar) and further projects in Algeria.