's
Theatro Municipal. The first phase, consisting of a single 15-kilometre line between the
Novo Rio Bus Terminal and
Santos Dumont Airport and 18
stops, was inaugurated on 5 June 2016, two months ahead of the
Olympics opening ceremony, with regular service beginning the following day. For the first month of operation, it was
free of charge to ride, but only two trams were in service between noon and 15:00 on the section between Parada dos Museus in
Praça Mauá and Santos Dumont Airport. The remainder of the line was opened and service was expanded to full-time operation on 12 July, although only 16 of the 18 stops on the line are in use. The network uses 32
Alstom Citadis 402
low-floor trams carrying 420 passengers each. They are
bi-directional,
air-conditioned, have seven sections, and eight doors per side. The first five trams were built in
Alstom's facility in
La Rochelle, France and shipped to Rio in July 2015, and the remaining 27 were built in Alstom's facility in
Taubaté, in the
state of São Paulo. There are no
overhead lines installed along the entire route. Instead, Alstom has equipped approximately 80% of the line with its proprietary
ground-level power supply (APS) system. The remaining 20% uses on-board
supercapacitor-based
energy storage (SRS), also developed by Alstom. Trams are still equipped with
pantographs for use in the maintenance facility. The remainder of the three-line, 28-km network will open in stages by the end of 2017. It is estimated that when the entire network is at full capacity, it would be able to reduce 60% of buses and 15% of automobile traffic circulating in
the city centre. ==See also==