The Teresina Metro in Teresina

Teresina

Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. It is located in North-central Piauí 366 km from the coast.It is therefore, the only capital in the Northeast that is not located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. With 814 439 inhabitants, it is the 19th...

, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 state of Piauí

Piauí

Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...

, is operated by CMTP (Metropolitan Public Transport Company). It is 14.5 km (8.4 mi) long with a daily ridership of about 5,000.

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 costs of the system, the project uses the existing metre gauge rail line, which cuts 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, who covered the stretch between Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

 and Uruguayana, which has the metre gauge track.
Line 1 of the subway entered into trial operation in November 1990, and was launched commercially on 5 June, 1991. A new station in construction the city centre should increase usage to 10,000 passengers daily.

System characteristics

The system consists of a total length of 12.5 km. Eight stations formed mostly by surface track. Diesel trains are running on a single track line with 1000 mm gauge, traveling at an average speed of 30 km/h. One of the train sets has been completely modernised in 2006.

Route

Line	Terminals	Inauguration	Length (km)	Stations	Length of trips (min)	Operation
1	Mercado ↔ Engenheiro Alberto Silva	June 5, 1991	14,5	9	50	Monday-Friday, 6:00-19:00 hrs