The Federal District Metro ( Portuguese: ''Metrô do Distrito Federal'', commonly called ''Metrô DF'') is the

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

system of the

Federal District A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

, in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It is operated by ''Companhia do Metropolitano do Distrito Federal'' and was opened in 2001. Currently, Federal District's Metro has 27 stations on two lines, and it runs for . The system passes through 6 Administrative regions of the Federal District, those being

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

, Guará, Águas Claras, Taguatinga,

Ceilândia Ceilândia () is an administrative region in the Federal District in Brazil. It is bordered by Brazlândia to the north, Taguatinga to the east, and Samambaia and Sol Nascente/Por do Sol to the south. With about 398,374 inhabitants, it is th ...

, and Samambaia. The metro covers the

's main

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. Its main problem is the sheer distance between many stations (caused by overall low

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an profile for such system), making it only a small part of the transit system of the

and mostly an intercity service, with exceptions in

and

. The administrative region of Águas Claras is well-served by the system, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of the Federal District and the most dense.

History

The construction of the Federal District Metro began on 7 January 1992, and its first sections started operating in 1999, but because of a backlog of work, the metro was not opened at its originally-scheduled date and time (21 April 1994 at 17:00). Work was finally finished in the beginning of 2001, and commercial service began on 24 September of that year. During the first months, the metro operated only from 10:00 to 16:00 over only of the network of total of . Five more stations were opened in 2008: 108 South, Guariroba, Ceilândia Centro, Ceilândia Norte and Ceilândia Sul. 102 South and 112 South stations opened in 2009; Guará station opened in 2010. The 106 Sul Cine Brasília station and 110 Sul stations were opened on 16 September 2020.

Operations

It operates from 06:00 to 23:30 Mondays to Saturdays, from 07:00 to 19:00 on Sundays. The metro's commercial speed is . The track gauge is and powered by a

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

. Its stations are equipped with stairs and lifts.

Tickets and fares

The access to Metrô-DF is controlled by electronic entry and exit barriers. To travel on the metro,

tickets Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery, Lottery ticket * Parking violation, Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Ticket system, Toll ticket, a slip of paper use ...

are unitary, for a single trip, or by a magnetic card, which is inserted into the ticket barriers. The card can be recharged.

Lines

The Green and Orange Lines both begin at the Central station, under the Pilot Plan Bus Station in the centre of

and run parallel up until the Águas Claras station. The Orange Line goes south to Samambaia. The Green Line follows to

. The metro runs underground in Brasília (with the exception of the Asa Sul station) and through the Central Sector of Taguatinga, at Praça do Relógio station. Elsewhere, it runs on the surface.

Rolling stock

Its increasing use indicated the need to expand the original fleet of 20 four–car Alstom Metropolis trainsets. To deal with the increasing demand, 12 new four–car trainsets were purchased from

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

, with the first arriving in the Federal District in June 2010, leading to a fleet of 32 trains in total. All trains go through a period of engagement and dynamic tests, where all components of traction, braking,

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

ing and

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

will be assessed. Therefore, it takes 30 days for effective operation of new cars. The new fleet incorporates a number of advanced technologies including a modern drive system, which reduces the technical flaws of trains and reduce the waiting time at stations. Before the Alstom trains were put into operation, the Federal District Metro carried about 160,000

passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

s per day. With the new Alstom Metropolis trainsets in operation, the Federal District Metro's

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...

s can be reduced from four and a half minutes to three minutes, and its capacity will nearly double to 300,000 passengers per day. , all 12 of the new trainsets had been delivered and were in service. The Federal District Metro invested a total of R$ 325 million for the purchase of the new trains, modernizing the aging fleet, and purchasing spare parts. R$260 million was financed by

BNDES The National Bank for Economic and Social Development or NBESD (, abbreviated: BNDES) is a development bank structured as a federal public company associated with the Ministry of the Economy of Brazil. The stated goal is to provide long-term f ...

, with the remainder being paid by the federal government.

Expansion plans

In 2009, the originally-planned first stage of the new transport system in the Federal District was inaugurated. A

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

line was planned to depart from rail Terminal South and cut over Estrada Parque Polícia Militar road and travel south to 502 Nouth, a distance of . It is one of three sections provided for in an online project to integrate a set of measures developed by the Government of the Federal District to revitalize the W3. The complete light rail line route would link rail Terminal North to the

Brasília International Airport Brasília–President Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport () , also known as the Brasília International Airport, is the international airport serving Brasília, located in the Administrative regions of the Federal District (Brazil), admin ...

(). This original Terminal South stretch was planned to be ready for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

. Work on this first phase started in 2009, under the company's management of the Federal District Metro. However, work on the line was suspended in April 2011 because of a fraudulent billing process, and the line was not ready for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but it is still included in longer-term planning. The more recent priority for the line rail line project was a planned , 7-station section including the section between rail Terminal South and the Brasília International Airport. The section was budgeted at R$276.9 million. The light rail line project was restarted, with the bidding process on the section from 2013.

Network Map

References

External links

Official website (in Brazilian Portuguese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Federal District Metro Metro Rapid transit in Brazil Underground rapid transit in Brazil Electric railways in Brazil 5 ft 3 in gauge railways in Brazil