SÃO Paulo Metro (CMSP) will retrofit 88 platform screen doors in 36 of the Brazilian city’s busiest stations on the Blue, Green and Red lines, with the tender expected to be released later this year and the contract for the four and a half year project due to be signed early next year.

Platform screen doors are already used at some of the newest metro stations in São Paulo, the most populous city in Brazil, but installing them at the older stations, which will still be operating during the project, is expected to be more difficult as they are not designed to accommodate them.
Stations with only one island platform, such as Conceição, will have two sets, one on each side, while interchane stations, such as Paraíso and República stations, will have four. Sé station will have eight sets of doors installed. Busy stations such as Jabaquara and Tucuruvi on Line 1 and Corinthians-Itaquera and Barra Funda on Line 3 are not included in the contract.

CMSP did not release the value of the project, which it revealed at a public hearing on June 6. Earlier this year, the state government published a bill in which it asks for authorisation from the legislative assembly to use $US 111m remaining from financing the Lilac Line (Line 5) to install platform screen doors.

“Platform screen doors increase the efficiency of the metro because it makes it almost impossible for the passenger to cause any interference on the track – from trash thrown on the track to an accident with people falling, being pushed or attempting suicide,” says Mr João Octaviano Machado Neto, municipal secretary of mobility.