VLT: construindo um novo significado para a área central do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This research accesses the recurrence of light rail vehicles (LRV) in contemporary cities. This recurrence movement is discussed through a process of valuing this vehicle as a showcase of urban transformations in the cities, which have began in the European Continent and spread through several cities around the world, ending up with the elevation of the LRV to the status of a urban renewal processes icon. In the light of the reintegration experience of this vehicles in the centers of French cities, which was based on a very particular methodology, as well as the experience of Barcelona in the 90’s, with a whole context of public spaces requalification and resumption of urbanity value, we have used as a background in this article the theoretical bases that support the masters research which investigates the role of rails in the construction of a new urban image in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.