FCC begins construction of Panama Metro Line 1

Federico Suárez, Panama’s Minister of Public Works, has announced that construction work commenced (15.2.2011) on Panama Metro Line 1, under a contract worth 1 billion euro (1.452 billion dollars) that was awarded in late October to FCC in consortium with Brazilian construction company Norberto Odebrecht and French company Alstom.

The Metro will be 14 kilometres long and include 11 stations, some of which will be above ground. Line 1 will run from north to south, linking the city centre with the suburbs in the east, which are lacking in public transport options at present. It will connect the national bus terminal in Albrook to the Los Andes shopping mall to the north of Panama City.

This new mass transit system, the first in Central America, seeks to modernise Panama City’s transport system and broadly replace the bus system, whose fleet has been operating for over 40 years. In its initial phase, the metro line will have capacity for 15,000 people per hour each way, increasing to 40,000 each way by 2035.

The stations on Panama Metro Line 1 will be as follows:

• 2 termini (1 definitive, the other provisional).
• 3 offering transfers to other modes of transport and future Metro lines
• 6 intermediate stations, with platforms of up to 93 metres in length, depending on the final characteristics and configuration of the trainsets,
• Approximately 10 hectares of marshalling yards and workshops will be built at the Albrook end of the line. The operational control centre will also be built in this area.
• The system will be highly automated, preferentially driverless, with cutting-edge detection and tracking systems for trains at intervals of as short as 90 seconds, and potentially 75 seconds.
• The line will be built while minimising encroachment on roads, using underpasses and overpasses.