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Monorails of South America
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Pocos de Caldas, Brazil
CLOSED The resort town of Pocos de Caldes installed this single track line monorail to connect a major bus station on the outskirts of the town with downtown destinations. Designed and built by J.Ferreira Ltd., the trains were fabricated largely of aluminum "to give prestige to the local specialty." Alcoa Aluminum has had a plant in the area since 1971. The system was designed to allow the addition of a second beam should ridership require it. Ridership on weekends is made up mostly of tourists while local residents use the monorail for transit during weekdays. The 80-passenger trains are electrically powered, but can also be operated using built in backup diesel motors. J. Ferreira designed and built the monorail at their own expense and they have been granted a 50-year concession to operate the line. Per Bruce Varley on July 21, 2004...the monorail "started up in 1990, then a few months later shut down with safety/engineering problems. I was there recently, sections of the track have collapsed, the whole thing is totally derelict. Sad." |
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