By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Estação Uruguai (Uruguay subway station) was inaugurated at approximately 11AM on Saturday, March 15th in Rio de Janeiro’s Zona Norte (North Zone) neighborhood of Tijuca. After an opening ceremony with attendees including Rio de Janeiro Governor Sérgio Cabral, the station opened its doors to the public around noon.
The seven thousand square meter station features two levels and five street entrances; two on Rua Itacuruçá, two on Rua Conde de Bonfim and one on Rua Dona Delfina.
The Estação Uruguai will also be the first Rio subway station to offer Wi-Fi access. Available to all mobile operators for use on both the platforms and mezzanines within the station, users, after registering on the city’s MetrôRio site, can access the Wi-Fi network twice daily for fifteen minutes at a time. The city’s remaining subway stations are also scheduled to offer Wi-Fi access during the coming year, according to MetrôRio.
It has been a long wait for residents of Tijuca and the city, as construction of the Estação Uruguai was promised along with two other stations in 1982.
The station’s construction finally began after an almost thirty year wait in 2010. It’s opening on Saturday was early, as the projected operations start was late 2014. “All works were intensified in this last phase of works to deliver the new season early for our users,” president of MetrôRio Flávio Almada told Terra.
Read more (in Portuguese).
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