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City Hall opens new exclusive BRT garage in Paciência, in the West Zone
Published on 28/09/2025 - 15:39 | Updated
The unit is the largest in the entire network, with capacity to accommodate a fleet of 307 buses. Photo: Marcelo Piu Rio de Janeiro City Hall, through the Municipal Department of Transportation and MOBI-Rio, inaugurated the new BRT parking garage in the West Zone on Sunday (September 28th) in Paciência. This is the fifth dedicated parking garage for BRT buses in Rio. The others are located in Ramos, Cascadura, Curicica, and Deodoro.
"This is the first of a series of assets that the city government will now own throughout the city. One of the main changes compared to the previous system is that the garages will now belong to the municipality. They will no longer be private garages. This gives us greater negotiating power over the transportation system," stated Mayor Eduardo Paes, highlighting the improved service quality:
– We see this in research. Rejection of the BRT used to be 80 or 90 percent. That's reversed. Today, 95 percent of people are very satisfied with the service provided by MOBI-Rio.
The new facility, located on Avenida Cesário de Melo, covers 70.346 m² and has the capacity to park and perform preventive and corrective maintenance on a fleet of 307 buses, including 183 articulated buses and 124 standard buses. The investment was R$34 million. The facility is strategically important for the Transoeste corridor, as it will allow the entire fleet to be concentrated, including the technical reserve used to streamline operations.
For the Secretary of Transportation, Maína Celidônio, deliveries like this guarantee the quality of the service provided to the population.
"This is the largest garage in the system, where we fuel, wash, maintain, and paint vehicles. And it's good maintenance that allows us to provide quality service for many years," he assures.
A total of 150 employees work directly at the facility and will be assigned to work shifts at the new depot in Paciência. Additionally, approximately 1.000 drivers daily meet the vehicles operating on the Transoeste corridor, which carries the largest number of passengers in the system, a daily average of 237 passengers (weekdays).
– This garage serves the entire Transoeste operation, which is the corridor that carries the most passengers -, highlights Claudia Secin, president of MOBI-Rio.
The Paciência garage has a 55m³ Oil and Water Separator (OWS). This allows 63% of the collected water to be used for pre-washing the fleet's buses.
Inaugurated in 2012, the Transoeste corridor was the first BRT corridor implemented in the city of Rio and connects Barra da Tijuca to Santa Cruz and Campo Grande. The City Hall delivered the new Transoeste on December 9, 2023, which had a total of 59 kilometers revitalized, with 31 kilometers of BRT track rebuilt in concrete.
The corridor's requalification also included the transformation of four stations into terminals – Magarça, Pingo d'Água, Mato Alto and Curral Falso –, increasing service capacity and ensuring greater comfort and mobility for passengers.
Aiming to restore the system's efficiency and provide a good service to passengers, Rio de Janeiro City Hall took over municipal management of the BRT in March 2021. At that time, there were only 120 articulated buses operating on the Transcarioca, Transolímpica, and Transoeste routes. Furthermore, 46 stations were closed.
The initiative resulted in the complete renewal of the articulated bus fleet, the renovation of all 120 stations, the implementation of safety measures, the pavement repairs on the Transoeste corridor, and the completion of the Transbrasil corridor, with 17 stations, and the Gentileza, Deodoro, Magarça, Mato Alto, and Pingo D'Água terminals. The entire fleet purchased for the system totals 731 buses.
These actions ensured substantial improvements for the population that uses the high-capacity transit service daily. Rio residents have regained their trust in the BRT system, managed by MOBI-Rio, and the average daily ridership has grown from 150 in March 2021 to 530 currently.
