Bombardier won the UITP Award in the category ‘Intermodal Innovation’ for Latin America for the High capacity Bombardier Innovia Monorail 300 system, to be built for the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This award was handed out during the 60th UITP World Congress and Exhibition in Geneva at the end of May.

São Paulo’s new monorail line, also known as Line 15, Silver Line and/or Expresso Tiradentes, will have 24 km length and will serve 17 stations with 54 seven-car trains, connecting the Vila Prudente and Cidade Tiradentes areas in the eastern part of the city. The new driverless transit system for São Paulo features the integrated BOMBARDIER CITYFLO 650 communications -based train control (CBTC) technology, which will allow for headways of 75 seconds.

Currently this journey takes approximately two hours by car and the Monorail is to reduce the time to only 50 minutes, benefiting an estimated half a million users daily.  This new line will serve as an extension of metro line 2 of the Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo and it is expected to open by 2014.

São Paulo will be the first city in the world to implement this technology for a mass transit public transport system.

The Monorail’s advantages include its high passenger capacity combined with the fact that the system is cost effective to introduce as it does not require major infrastructure or civil works.

The project is being delivered by the Expresso Monotrilho Leste Consortium (Eastern Express Monorail consortium), led by Brazilian civil contractor Queiroz Galvão and incorporating construction firm Construtora OAS as well as Bombardier Transportation.

The consortium was awarded the project in 2010 by the Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo (São Paulo Metro). The system will be completed in 2016.