The São Paulo Metropolitan Railway Company CPTM, a company linked to the Secretariat of Metropolitan Transport of the State of São Paulo (STM), is continuing with its project to expand the city’s Line 13, known as Jade, a 12.2-kilometre route that will connect the city centre with Guarulhos International Airport and is expected to carry 130,000 passengers every weekday. The Chinese-Brazilian consortium Temoinsa-Sifang is manufacturing eight new trains for this line which are specially designed with extra space for transporting the luggage of future users. The manufacture in China and the delivery and assembly of the trains is being carried out under the supervision of the CS8T Spanish-Brazilian consortium made up of Ineco, Ineco do Brasil, EBEI and MetroEng.

The rolling stock, which is being manufactured at CRRC Sifang’s facilities, was purchased by the State Government of São Paulo in September 2017 for 316.7 million reales with 85 million euros of financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB). With each train equipped with eight carriages, this fleet will provide shuttle services between São Paulo’s International Airport, the largest in Latin America, and the city of São Paulo.

In January 2019, a team of Ineco technicians travelled to the facilities of CRRC Sifang –a public railway manufacturer based in Qingdao, China– to oversee the delivery of the first train in the 2500 series. The rolling stock is very much in line with the latest acquisitions of STM/CPTM, which feature distributed traction and steel boxes, and complementing the recent deliveries of 30 Hyundai trains and 35 trains from the Spanish company CAF, both also financed by the EIB. This will give CPTM a more modern and versatile fleet, which will be put into service over the next two years. After disembarking at the Port of Santos, the new rolling stock is transported by road to CPTM’s facilities for dynamic track testing.

The assembly of the eight trains in CRRC Sifang’s factory is slated for completion in the first months of 2020, and CPTM will then continue with the acceptance and commissioning of the vehicles, which must be completed by the beginning of 2022.

The work of the CS8T Consortium includes reviewing the vehicle design and supervising static and dynamic testing, which will be ongoing both at the factory and on the track until the trains are put into service. To this end, Ineco technicians are carrying out manufacturing inspection activities at CRRC Sifang’s facilities and static and dynamic testing both at the factory in Qingdao and at CPTM’s facilities in Presidente Altino, São Paulo. A team of technicians from Ineco has also carried out a design review from its offices in Spain.

The supervisors have to make sure from the outset that the assembled rolling stock meets the technical specifications and needs of CPTM. They also need to have a detailed knowledge of international and Brazilian railway regulations, as well as the regulations that apply to each of the main and auxiliary elements of the structure –boxes, axles, wheels, etc.– equipment and systems: traction, braking, train safety, passenger information, driving, emergency, etc. The supervision process must guarantee reliability and the technical compatibility of all elements.

Ineco has extensive expertise in this field, as well as professionals with specific knowledge of each of the components that make it possible for a train to operate safely and comfortably for users. This experience extends to all varieties of rolling stock from all suppliers: Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, Siemens, etc.

The consortium led by Ineco, together with the Brazilian engineering company EBEI, will continue to support the mixed-capital company DERSA (Desenvolvimiento Rodoviário S.A. in which the State of São Paulo is a shareholder) in the coordination of contracts and the different agencies that take part in the ring road works in São Paulo, known as Rodoanel Mário Covas, which opened in 2002. The conclusion of work on the north section, anticipated for late 2018, will mark the completion of the 177 kilometre ring road around the city which has a daily traffic of 65,000 vehicles.

The last north section, which is 43.86 kilometres long, is the most complex due to its location, since it is limited in the north by the Sierra de Cantareira Forest Reserve and in the south by the residential zones in the São Paulo metropolitan area. The current alignment lies between the hillsides of the Sierra de Cantareira and the borders of the urban landscape of São Paulo. It is designed for a maximum speed of 100 km/h, it has three and four lanes, depending on the area; it has also required the construction of seven tunnels and 111 bridges and viaducts. Among other activities, Ineco coordinates the project planning, expropriations and environmental actions.

In the picture, Ineco engineers José L. Pancorbo and José Isidro Díaz, general coordinator of the consortium office.

Since last August, more than 20,000 residents of this new construction zone have been able to reach the centre of Madrid in 25 minutes thanks to the new halt, without having to go to the centre of Torrejón de Ardoz. Located in this Madrid municipality of 127,000 inhabitants in the north-east of Madrid, the new station belongs to the C7 commuter line and serves the districts of Soto del Henares, Mancha Amarilla and Zarzuela, a zone near the Hospital of Torrejón and the new Casablanca industrial estate. Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif. It is a modular structure of porticos that eliminates the need for interior pillars (open plan) and can be easily adapted to any type of station. The main building, direction Alcalá de Henares, has a rectangular floor, a foyer with waiting areas, automatic ticket vending machines and six faregates, with the possibility of increasing this number to nine. It also has a space for offices, toilets and utility rooms.

Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif

A modular and extendible design

The halt has two buildings, one for each direction. In the interior, all uses are distributed by independent building volumes (‘building within a building’). The station was designed with a capacity to receive 6,000 passengers a day, although the modular structure facilitates its future expansion.

Golden ratio

The geometry of the buildings is based on the golden ratio of a two-metre square, which forms rectangles of 2.8282 x 2m. When doubled they create a module of 5.6564 x 2m, and from the division of this module come all of the internal distances between porticos and different spaces are created.

A light box

The main building is laid out as a rectangular prism with two façades, which provides a maintenance area between them. While the “skin” tinges the interior-exterior light (‘light box’ effect), the outer layer generates permeability and allows the design to be changed.

Platforms

The platform edges are 1.75 metres from the track centres, with a width of 5 metres and a length of 210 metres, with 6 metre slopes at each end. Thanks to the 80 metres of canopy extending from the buildings, passengers are always sheltered when they access the platforms.

Other stations designed by Ineco

Ineco has extensive experience in drawing up architectural designs, as well as in construction management and technical assistance and the preparation of feasibility studies in different types of stations, both overground and underground.

• In Cercanías (commuter rail) we should highlight, amongst others, projects such as the Miribilla station in Bilbao, built at a depth of 50 metres; the two in the Málaga airport access and a few others in the Valencian town of Alboraya, all of which are also underground, or the modern Cercanías halt of the Manuel-Énova bypass of the high-speed line to Levante.
• With regard to modular stations, in 2009 it developed an innovation project taking a small halt in the north of Madrid, Las Zorreras, as a reference. A similar solution was also planned, the predecessor of that of Soto del Henares, for the Las Margaritas-Universidad station, in Getafe, in the southern zone of Madrid. Abroad, in 2011, eight modern modular stations were designed for the Bogotá Western Corridor in Colombia.
• With regard to the renovation of historical stations, we can highlight the design and construction management of the historic façade of Atocha (2012), that of the full renovation of Aranjuez station (2008) currently underway, or the modernisation works in around twenty Catalan stations (2009).
• As well as architecture projects, we can also highlight other services, such as technical assistance for the work of the new La Sagrera-Meridiana commuter station in Barcelona (2010) or the prior feasibility studies for the Belgrade light rail in Serbia, with 25 stations, 10 of them underground; or for the São Paulo commuter network in Brazil, which included the construction of nine stations and the renovation of 65 others.
• With regard to highspeed stations, Ineco has carried out around twenty projects, both in construction management and in drawing up architectural designs: this is the case for the stations of Puente Genil, Camp and Antequera-Santa Ana (2007), that of Vigo-Guixar or the projects in nine other stations of the Galician Atlantic corridor in 2010 (see article). Ineco has also worked in the construction management to adapt stations in the whole network for high speed: Santa Justa in Seville, Sants in Barcelona, Atocha in Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Santiago and Ourense in Galicia, etc., as well as in that of enlargement of the Atocha railway complex and its new AVE terminal, begun in 2010.