The Porto Alegre Metro (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''Metrô de Porto Alegre'', commonly called ''Trem'' or ''Trensurb'') is a transit system operated jointly by the federal government, the state government of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

and the city of

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

through the company Trensurb (Company of Urban Trains of Porto Alegre SA) in Brasil. It has 22 stations, totaling of route, and carries about 175,000 users a day.

History

The Line 1 of the subway built in Porto Alegre was started in 1980, linking the center of Porto Alegre to cities to the north of the metropolitan area, as Canoas, Esteio, Sapucaia do Sul, São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo. The choice of path was made to relieve the heavy traffic of highway BR-116, the only option before the construction of this line, which already had serious problems with the transit at the time. The Line 1 was inaugurated on March 2, 1985 between the Central Public Market and Sapucaia do Sul, covering a route of and 15 stations.

Extensions

In December 1997, the line was extended to Unisinos. A extension to São Leopoldo-Museum was added in November 2000, after two months of trial service. A further extension to

Novo Hamburgo Novo Hamburgo (Portuguese for ''New Hamburg''; german: Neu-Hamburg) is a municipality in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, the state capital. As of 2020, its population was 247, ...

opened in two phases: a , two station stretch opened in July 2012, followed by the final , three station stretch on December 21, 2013.

Operations

System characteristics

The Porto Alegre Rapid Transit has an average distance between each station of . The average speed of trains is , while the maximum speed is . The rail gauge is (

Irish gauge Railways with a track gauge of fall within the category of broad gauge railways. , they were extant in Australia, Brazil and Ireland. History 600 BC :The Diolkos (Δίολκος) across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved pave ...

), with power supplied to the trains by a 3,000 VDC

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...

Lines

Airport connection people mover

Construction of a (including maintenance track, it is long) single-line fully automated

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

connecting the Estação Aeroporto (Airport Station) and Terminal 1 of

Salgado Filho International Airport Salgado Filho Porto Alegre International Airport is the airport serving Porto Alegre and the region of Greater Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is named after the Senator and first Minister of the Brazilian Air Force Joaquim Pedro Salgado Filho (1888– ...

has been completed. The line has been operational since August 2013. It is a part of the Porto Alegre Metro system so users do not need to purchase a separate ticket. The journey time is 90 seconds. Depending on demand, one or two vehicles (150 or 300 passengers), will operate at any one time. Cost of construction was R$37.8 million with demand projected at 7,700 passengers per day. In the period 1 May 2014 to 7 September 2014, following the introduction of fare collection, the service averaged 3,165 passengers per day with a peak of 4,134 on 5 September 2014. This is the first commercial installation in the world of the

Aeromovel An atmospheric railway uses differential air pressure to provide power for propulsion of a railway vehicle. A static power source can transmit motive power to the vehicle in this way, avoiding the necessity of carrying mobile power generating eq ...

design, an

atmospheric railway An atmospheric railway uses differential air pressure to provide power for propulsion of a railway vehicle. A static power source can transmit motive power to the vehicle in this way, avoiding the necessity of carrying mobile power generating eq ...

technology first developed in Porto Alegre in the late 1970s.

Future expansion

Line 2 of the metro is proposed to consist of a route from the city centre to

Cachoeirinha Cachoeirinha (lit. "Little Waterfall") is a city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Cachoeirinha is an alternative for the people who want to be near Porto Alegre (capital of Rio Grande do Sul). The city is situated at a strategic point ...

, of which around half will be underground. In 2019, the estimated cost of the line was $2.9 billion.

Network Map

References

{{coord missing, Rio Grande do Sul

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

Rapid transit in Brazil Underground rapid transit in Brazil Transport in Rio Grande do Sul Electric railways in Brazil 3000 V DC railway electrification