BRAZIL: Alstom Transport signed a €110m contract on July 23 to supply the Brasilia metro with 12 four-car Metropolis trains and to upgrade the existing rolling stock and infrastructure for automatic train operation.

Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social is providing an R$260·3m loan to the Federal District to part-fund the R$325m investment programme. The stainless steel trains will be manufactured at Alstom’s Lapa site in São Paulo, with deliveries to start in 2010.

The Brasilia metro currently has 20 four-car trains. The additional rolling stock and automatic train operation will allow a reduction in headways from 4½ to 3 min, doubling capacity to around 300 000 passengers/day.

The current 42 km network consists of the Green and Orange lines, which share a common section from Central to Aguas Claras and have a total of 23 stations. Work is underway to expand the network to 49 km and 34 stations in 2011.