get to the South Zone. The interconnection of the two metro lines will reduce, by up to 13 minutes, the journey time from Pavuna station to the city's downtown, the destination of 83% of Line 2's passengers. History Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil and the most popular tourist attraction in the country. After 1950, the number of motor vehicles on the roads increased dramatically. Rio de Janeiro lies in a hilly region, between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape of the city is extremely uneven, making travelling by car or bus a very time-consuming task through the narrow streets. These conditions are ideal for trams but not for the increasing traffic of motor vehicles. By the early 1960s, traffic jams, pollution, and smog had become a serious problem in the city. To overcome these problems, local transport authorities decided to reduce the tram network and switch over to a metro network. On 14 December 1968, the Companhia do Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro (Metro Company of Rio de Janeiro in English) was created through State Law number 1736. In March 1975, with Law–Decree number 25, the company effectively came into existence. On 23 June 1970, construction work started in Jardim da Glória. From 1971 to 1974, owing to a lack of resources, construction work stopped and was only resumed a year later. The Rio de Janeiro Metro began operating in March 1979, during the administration of governor Chagas Freitas. In the beginning, there were only five stations: Praça Onze, Central, Presidente Vargas, Cinelândia Station, and Glória Station, operating from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. In its initial 10 days, the system transported more than half a million people, averaging sixty thousand passengers per day. At that time, the subway worked with only four trains of four cars each, with an average interval of eight minutes. In December of the same year, the operating schedule was extended until 11:00 PM, including Saturdays. In 1980, the metro system began to be expanded with the opening of Uruguaiana Station and Estácio stations. The two new stations caused larger passenger demand, compelling an increase in the number of trains from four to six. The Carioca station in Downtown Rio de Janeiro, the busiest station with more than eighty thousand passengers a day, was finished in January 1981. By the end of the same year, the stations Catete