Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city of Brazil and the most important tourist attraction of the country. After 1950, the number of motor vehicles on the roads increased dramatically. Rio de Janeiro lies in a hilly region, between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape of the city is extremely uneven, making travelling by car or bus a very time-consuming task through the narrow streets, which were ideal for trams but not for the increasing traffic of motor vehicles. By the early 1960s, traffic jams, pollution, and smog had become a serious problem in the city. To overcome these problems, local transport authorities decided to greatly reduce the tram network and switch over to a metro network. On December 14, 1968, the Companhia do Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro (Metro Company of Rio de Janeiro in English) was created by State Law number 1736.[7] In March 1975, with Law–Decree number 25, the company effectively came into existence. On June 23, 1970, construction work started in Jardim da Glória. From 1971 to 1974, owing to a lack of resources, construction work stopped and was only resumed a year later. The Rio de Janeiro Metro began operating in March 1979, during the administration of governor Chagas Freitas. In the beginning, there were only five stations: Praça Onze, Central, Presidente Vargas, Cinelândia Station, and Glória Station, operating from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. In the first 10 days, the system transported more than half a million people, averaging sixty thousand passengers per day. At that time, the subway worked with only four trains of four cars each, with an average interval of eight minutes. In December of the same year, the operating schedule was extended until 11:00 PM, including Saturdays. In 1980, the metro system began to be expanded with the opening of Uruguaiana Station and Estácio stations. The two new stations caused larger passenger demand, compelling an increase in the number of trains from four to six. The Carioca station in Downtown Rio de Janeiro, the busiest station with more than eighty thousand passengers a day, was finished in January 1981. By the end of the same year, the stations Catete Station, Morro Azul (now called Flamengo Station), and Botafogo Station were completed. In November 1981, Line 2 (or Linha 2 in Portuguese) started operating with only two stations: São Cristóvão and Maracanã Station (which serves the Maracanã football stadium). In December, completing the southern section of the first Line 1, Largo do Machado Station began service. In 1982, the complementary inaugurations of the northern section of Line 1 started, with the beginning of operations of the Afonso Pena, São Francisco Xavier and Saens Peña stations.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 02:29:23 +0000
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