The Belo Horizonte Metro (Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

: Metrô de Belo Horizonte, commonly called Metrô) is a metro

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 system serving the city of Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

, Brazil

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...

. The system has one line which is 28.2 km (17.5 mi) long, has 19 stations and carries 145,000 passengers per day. The system is operated by Compania Brasiliera de Trens Urbanos (CBTU). Two more lines are planned.

History

The first section of the metro opened on 1 August 1986. This was 10.8 km long and had six stations with three trains in operation. In 1987 the line was extended to Central station and two more trains were brought into use. Further trains were delivered in the 1990s, bringing the total to 25.

System characteristics

The trains are supplied by 3000V DC overhead wires and have a commercial speed of 40 km/h with a maximum speed of 80 km/h. Track gauge

Rail gauge

Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...

 is 1600 mm.

System table

Line	Terminals	Inauguration	Length (km)	Stations	Length of trip (min)	Operation
1	Eldorado ↔ Vilarinho	1 August 1986	28,1	19	---	Daily, from 05:45 to 23:00

Future lines

Line	Terminals	Inauguration	Length (km)	Stations	Length of trip (min)	Posture
2	Barreiro ↔ Santa Tereza	---	21	11	---	Under construction
3	Pampulha ↔ Savassi	---	12,5	11	---	Planned

See also

• List of rapid transit systems