The Teresina 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 Teresina'', commonly called ''Metrô'', though it is technically not a

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 ...

system) in

Teresina Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. Being located in north-central Piauí 366 km from the coast, it is the only capital in the Brazilian Northeast that is not located on the shores of the ...

, the capital and largest city of the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian state of

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

, is a

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

line operated by CMTP (Metropolitan Public Transport Company). It is long with a daily ridership of about 12,000.

History

The Teresina Metro was inaugurated on 15 August 1989, with the objective of establishing a high-capacity transport for the urban agglomeration of Teresina. The works were initiated at the end of 1989. To reduce the costs of the system, the project uses the existing metre gauge rail line, which travels through Teresina. It was placed into a cut in the centre of the city, to reduce interference with road traffic. It adopted diesel train-sets sponsored by RFFSA, which covered the stretch between

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 ...

and

Uruguaiana Uruguaiana is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is located on the eastern shore of the Uruguay River bordering Argentina. Opposite to Uruguaiana, and joined to it by a road/railway bridge, lies the Argentine city of P ...

, which has the metre gauge track. Line 1 entered into trial operation in November 1990 and was launched commercially on 5 June 1991. A new station under construction in the city centre was supposed to increase usage to 20,000 passengers daily since none of the other stations are in the center of the city nor do they have bus terminals at their stations (the majority of Teresina Metro stations are on narrow streets in poorer neighborhoods with little commercial activity). After the inauguration of the Engenheiro Alberto Tavares Silva/Bandeira station, daily ridership only increased to 8,000 in 2013. In comparison, the city bus system handles about 225,000 daily passengers. The Teresina Metro has plans to expand since it currently serves no major shopping center (besides the Shopping da Cidade which is populated by street vendors), the local soccer stadium, bus station or airport.

Operations

System characteristics

The system consists of a total length of . Eight stations formed mostly by surface track. Diesel trains are running on a single-track line with

meter gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

(), traveling at an average speed of . One of the train sets has been completely modernised in 2006.

Line

References

External links