Question – Claudia Lima, Sao Paulo, SP
Technologically speaking, none. Both are powered by electricity, run on the same type of rails and are even similar on the inside. The main difference is in use – in cities, metropolitan trains are more used to transport people from different cities in metropolitan regions, while the metro circulates only within the same city. There are also long-distance trains and freight trains (these are quite different from the subway). When the first subway appeared, in 1863, in England, some trains were already circulating. This made the subways, although they had the same technological standard, a little more modern. In Brazil, many trains have never been replaced by new trains, which is why many people think that the subway is more modern and that the train is a trip to the past.
SO CLOSE, SO FAR The subway circulates through denser regions, such as the center – that’s why, sometimes, it is underground, to be able to avoid obstacles. The train, on the other hand, comes from less populated regions, which allows it to travel more on surface – but this is not a rule
SIZE IS DOCUMENT
Trains are often larger than subways. They have, on average, 12 wagons, of about 20 meters each, totaling 250 meters in length. The subways have a maximum of six cars and 120 meters
METROPOLITAN RHYTHM
With larger compositions, which carry more people, the interval time between trains is greater than between subways. In São Paulo, for example, the waiting time for a subway ranges from 90 to 130 seconds. For a metropolitan train, the wait can reach 15 or 20 minutes
trails wanted See the capitals with the most kilometers of tracks per inhabitant 5th Porto Alegre (RS) POPULATION – 4 million SUBWAY – 33.8 km TRAIN – none4th São Paulo (SP) POPULATION – 20 million SUBWAY – 66 km TRAIN – 260.8 km3rd RECIFE (PE) POPULATION – 4 million TRAIN – 31.5 km SUBWAY – 39.5 km2nd Brasilia (DF) POPULATION – 2 million SUBWAY – 42.4 km TRAIN – none1st Rio de Janeiro (RJ) POPULATION – 12 million SUBWAY – 40 km TRAIN – 225 km
COLADINHO IN THE SUBWAY SUBWAY stations – are closer to each other. This interferes with speed: the TREM – tends to be faster (90 km/h in São Paulo), since it has more space to reach maximum speed between stations, which are more distant. SUBWAY – has a shorter interval to “engage” and reaches 80 km/hSOLD OUT METRÔ – in São Paulo transports 3.5 million passengers per working day. The TRAIN – the capital’s subway takes 2.2 million people a day. At peak hours, there are nine passengers per square meter in both – the accepted limit should be three people per square meter
Is there slots In the equation of the railway network divided by population, São Paulo loses to other metropolisesSão Paulo POPULATION – 20 million KM BY SUBWAY – 66 kmMexico City POPULATION – 8.84 million SUBWAY KM – 201,388 kmSeoul POPULATION – 10.45 million KM BY SUBWAY – 303.2 km
SOURCES – Administrators of the train and subway systems in the mentioned cities; National Public Transport Association (ANTP); IBGE; Ayrton Camargo e Silva, manager of Functional Project and Transport Integration at CPTM; Telmo Giolito Porto, engineer at the Polytechnic School of USP and director of the Tejofran group