The Role of Rail Transit Systems in Reducing Energy and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: The Case of The City of Rio de Janeiro

The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has established, by municipal law, a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the transport system by 20% until 2020 compared to 2005. In order to reach this goal, the city's public transport has been restructured with an emphasis on rail transit systems. The city will host the 2016 Olympic Games and this has encouraged the transformation of public transportation. One of the new projects is the construction of a new metro line, Line 4, to connect the downtown area to the city's fastest growing part, the western region, which will also be a venue for many events during the Olympic Games. This article presents and applies a procedure for calculating energy use and emissions avoided by Line 4 by attracting users from other transport modes in the period from 2016 to 2040. The procedure uses a detailed demand forecast for this period and considers the local transport profile and the different fuels used. The net amount of carbon dioxide avoided was 55,449 tonnes per year and 44.53 grams per passenger kilometer. The avoided energy reached 0.76 MJ per passenger kilometer.