The Brastram consortium, led by Alstom, has won the EUR265m (CAD$409.1 m)Ai??Ai??contract to build the 8.7km phase 1 tramway, designed to reduce car traffic by 30% on the congested Avenida W3 Sul from Asa Sul to 502 Norte. Alstom Citadis trams featuring APS surface current collection will be used on the line.

This will be Brazil’s first modern tramway and recognises that expensive metro construction is not the complete solution to the city’s mass transit needs. Finance will come from the French development agency ADF and operation will start by the end of 2010. Montpellier transport authority TAM has signed a separate EUR350 000 (CAD $540,226) contract to provide six years of technical consultancy through to project completion.

The line will be extended later to 22.6km with 24 stops in time for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

A note by Zweisystem: The cost of about CAD $409 million for 8.7 km of tramway can be partly explained by using the APS surface current collection system, which is extremelyAi??Ai??expensive to install, as much as five times more than overhead wiring.