The project is due to be completed in 12 months, and involves building a link between Central do Brasil commuter-rail station on Line 2 and Rio Branco Avenue, between São Bento and Candelária stations, where it will connect with Line 3 to Santos Dumont Airport. There will be three stations on the new section.

 

The project is being funded as part of the total budget of Reais 1.57bn ($US 490m) for building the entire light rail network through a public-private partnership.

With the opening of Line 2 and nine additional stations in 2017, the network currently has 26 stations. In December 2017, traffic reached an average of 56,000 passengers per day and peak headways between LRVs were cut from 10 to seven minutes. In its first year and a half of operation, the light rail network has already transported more than 15 million passengers.

Rio LRT map