Belo Horizonte Metro () is a rapid transit system serving the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The system has one line which serves 19 stations. The Metro carried 54.4 million passengers in 2019, or approximately 150,000 passengers per day. The system is operated by Metrô BH company, which is part of the Comporte Group. Two more lines are planned.
History
Overview The first section of the metro opened on 1 August 1986. At its opening, the Metro was 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. The line was extended again several times in the mid-1990s, and finally once more in 2002 adding the last 5 of the current 19 stations.
Further trains were delivered in the 1990s, with the last being delivered in December 2001, bringing the total number of trains to 25. In 2002 that the current 20 stations of the system were completed and it was only in 2005 that operations between Eldorado and Vilarinho began to occur in full. Construction on Line 2 began in 1998, was halted in 2004 and is currently being resumed, with completion scheduled for 2027.
1950-1975: Background The operation of passenger transport on rails in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Zone dates back to 1957, when a suburban train network was implemented between Belo Horizonte Station (later reduced to Calafate Station) and Barreiro Station, in the region of the same name, giving rise to the Barreiro-Calafate line, created as a result of the intensification of urban densification in the municipality, together with the consolidation of industrial complexes located in the Cidade Industrial, in Contagem. Between 1966 and 1996, a suburban train network was established throughout Belo Horizonte and adjacent municipalities. The suburban service had 21 stations, having provided service through 4 other connections: Belo Horizonte-Rio Acima, Sabará-Caeté, Betim-Matadouro and Matadouro-Pedro Leopoldo.
1975-1977: Project design In 1977, the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Luiz Verano, presented a subway project to the Minister of Transportation, Dirceu Nogueira. The project was initially budgeted at US$ 300 million. The minister ordered GEIPOT, the planning agency of the Ministry of Transportation, to develop a project for the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region that would address the bottleneck in freight transportation capacity that was occurring in the region, eliminate level crossings in the urban area crossed by the railroad, and improve passenger rail transportation.
The Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Zone is home to one of the most important railroad junctions, connecting, without alternative, the north to the south and the east to the west of Brazil. Because freight and passenger rail transportation had to share a single line, the tracks at this junction had limited transportation capacity, lower than the existing demands. In view of these problems, GEIPOT developed a project that sought a joint solution for freight and passengers, duplicating and segregating the lines and discarding the previous idea, which was to build a railway ring around the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Zone, which would be unfeasible to implement. The urban passenger transport system on rails was designed along the same lines as the existing railway bed, thus reducing the implementation cost and solving the problem of railway crossings in the metropolitan zone. Freight was maintained on its original bed, but with an exclusive line and some sections were rectified.
The project was developed with the following basic objectives: Implement an urban transport system on rails with subway characteristics that would serve the population in the area of direct and indirect influence of the existing RFFSA lines; improve the operational conditions of the freight lines that cross the Metropolitan Region, eliminating level crossings and expanding the transport capacity from 5 million tons/year to 30 million in the first phase and to 60 million tons/year with the duplication of the line; rationalize and modernize the urban transportation system of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Zone, providing greater fluidity to road traffic, reconstitution of the road network divided at grade by railways, fuel savings and reduction of noise and air pollution rates.
The original project initially envisaged a connection between Betim, to the west, and Matadouro, North East of Belo Horizonte, with a branch line to Barreiro, to the southwest, totaling 57.5 km of railway platform in a completely sealed lane, lower and upper crossings for vehicles and pedestrians. 22 stations, 25 electric train units, workshops, yards, intermodal integration terminals, support facilities, in addition to energy, supervision, control and telecommunications systems were planned.
1978–1980: Funding
While the project was being developed, the Ministry of Transport sought external financing for the project. Unsuccessful meetings were held with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in late 1977. The first contacts with French government agencies were made by the Ministry of Transport in August 1978. A loan of 180 million dollars from British banks was raised in London by the Empresa Brasileira de Transportes Urbanos (EBTU) in August 1980, but was blocked by the Central Bank of Brazil due to the increase in risk rates (spread).
After the unsuccessful attempt to obtain a loan from British banks, the Ministry of Transport resumed negotiations with French banks. On 17 July 1981, Minister Eliseu Resende signed an agreement with a consortium of French banks (Crédit Lyonnais, Banque National de Paris, Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur and Union Européenne des Banques) for the financing of US$220 million for the Belo Horizonte Metro project. The project had a total cost of US$ 400 millions, with the Ministry of Transportation providing US$180 million of its own resources. The signing of the financing with the French banks obliged the Ministry of Transportation to acquire 100 million dollars in French equipment for the project (trains, signaling, electrical and ticketing equipment, etc.), although Minister Rezende guaranteed that French and Brazilian companies would join forces to guarantee a nationalization rate of 75% of the equipment. The loan had a maximum grace period of ten years at an interest rate of 2.5% per year and amortization scheduled for twenty-five years.
1981-2005: Implementation and expansion
Construction work began in June 1981, with a 1986 completion schedule for the 33.8 km stretch defined as a priority, comprising the 23.3 km double-track route between Eldorado and Matadouro, and the 10.5 km Barreiro-Calafate branch. The funds for implementing the Metro were to come from the Energy Mobilization Program (PME) and financing from the French government for the acquisition of equipment for signaling, telecommunications, and energy systems, as well as part of the rolling stock, with a counterpart from the Federal Government for the execution of civil works, infrastructure, superstructure, expropriations, and assembly of the trains. The French portion of the funds was received within the expected schedule. However, due to the closure of the PME and the lack of definition of new sources of investment, the Federal Government's resources ceased and the work schedules were successively rolled over until 1987, when the service fronts were practically demobilized, making it possible to partially operate the Eldorado-Central section, with 12.5 km in length, seven stations and a fleet of only five trains. Several complementary works to treat the surroundings of the stations remained undone, making pedestrian access to the system and integration with the bus system difficult.
Only in 1991, with cross-party support in the National Congress, was it possible to allocate resources in the federal budget and resume work on implementing the system, in addition to assembling the remaining 20 trains, whose work had been halted in 1986. With the delay in implementation and the densification of the northern vector of the metropolitan region, the objectives and projects initially planned were modified, adapting them to a new reality. The implementation of the Eldorado-Betim and Calafate-Barreiro sections was postponed. In addition, priority was given to completing the Central-São Paulo section[note 2] and extending the subway to the northern zone, towards the Venda Nova region, in view of the growth in travel characteristics and urban densification of the vector. The infrastructure of the stations, based on this planning, no longer follows the architectural standard defined by GEIPOT. The new stations are lighter, less expensive and, whenever possible, elevators are being replaced by ramps. The need to provide special treatment for pedestrian access and integration with the bus system was also identified, without which the full use of the Metro would be impossible. The new pedestrian walkways now have sides with railings, eliminating the GEIPOT standard with the fully enclosed structural guardrail. They are lighter, with smoother ramps and provide greater comfort and safety for users. Four more stations were also planned on the Eldorado-São Paulo stretch, two between Eldorado and Central (Vila Oeste and Rodoviária) and another two between Horto Florestal and São Gabriel (José Cândido da Silveira and Minas Shopping). The inclusion of these new stations is due to the reformulation of the implementation project, revitalizing the operation and planning of the system with metro characteristics, in addition to expanding service to the network's area of influence.
The extension works to Vilarinho began in 1996, with the construction of 6.6 km and five new stations: In 1997, the Central-São Gabriel section was completed, with the delivery of the José Cândido da Silveira and Minas Shopping stations, thus concluding the two priority sections of the original plan (Eldorado-Central and Central-São Paulo). The following year, the implementation of Line 2 also began, thanks to the guarantee of resources from financing provided by the World Bank, which also supported the preparation of the Master Plan for Rail Transportation of the RMBH (PDTT), developed in a 20-year scenario. In 2002, the extension to Venda Nova was completed, with the delivery of five new stations: São Gabriel, Primeiro de Maio, Waldomiro Lobo, Floramar and Vilarinho. The section began experimental operations and was delivered on a commercial basis in 2005. Work on Line 2, in turn, was halted in 2004 due to budget constraints and the suspension of functional projects to expand the system. Work on the section has not been resumed since then.
2022: Regionalization and concession to the private sector In 2019, the Brazilian Federal Government, the Conselho do Programa de Parcerias e Investimentos (CPPI), included the Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos (CBTU) and Trensurb, the company operating the Porto Alegre subway system, in the Programa Nacional de Desestatização (PND), as a way of facilitating the concession and/or privatization process of the transportation systems operated by them. The studies for the transfer and concession of the systems under the responsibility of CBTU and Trensurb were authorized in November of the same year, through a presidential resolution. The studies were delegated to BNDES, with delivery scheduled for 2021. The Belo Horizonte system would be the first to be granted, as it was at the most advanced stage of the process. The others would be granted later.