All aboard Rio’s new metro as 2016 Olympics kick off in Brazil

Rio 2016 volunteers travel on the new Metro line number 4 in Rio de Janeiro. The new Metro Line will initially only be available to Rio 2016 Olympic Games accredited people and ticket holders. Lukas Coch / EPA

A worker stands in a train during an event inaugurating the new station on the new Metro Line 4 subway that links the Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca neighbourhoods. Mario Tama / Getty Images

Security men keep watch on the new Metro Line 4 subway. It will help to ferry passengers closer to the main Olympic Park. Mario Tama / Getty Images

A security worker stands next to a train on the new Metro Line 4 subway. Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Brazilian soldiers patrol in a station on the new Metro Line 4 ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games that open today. Mario Tama / Getty Images

The new Metro Line 4 also travels above ground, giving passengers a view of the Rio cityscape. Mario Tama / Getty Images

A worker looks out of a train on the new Metro Line 4. Mario Tama / Getty Images

A man descends an escalator in a station on the new Metro Line 4. The new link cost more than Dh11bn and It will help ferry passengers closer to the main Olympic Park. Mario Tama / Getty Images

A worker on a platform of the new Metro line number 4. During the Games the line will only be available to accredited people and Olympic event ticket holders. Lukas Coch / EPA

Soldiers stand at a station on Metro Line 4. Nacho Doce / Reuters

A train waits about to depart on the new Metro line number 4, opened just in time for the Games. The Rio 2016 Olympics will take place from August 5 until August 21, with the opening ceremony today. Lukas Coch / EPA

A worker cleans a platform of the new Metro line number 4. Lukas Coch / EPA

The new Metro line number 4 in Rio de Janeiro cost about Dh11bn. Lukas Coch / EPA

Construction workers are seen looking at a plan of the new Metro line number 4. Lukas Coch / EPA

As the Rio 2016 Olympic Games begin today, sports fans will be able to take advantage of the city’s new metro line.

The Brazilian interim president Michel Temer last week inaugurated the line that runs from Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood that is home to most of the Olympic venues, to the city’s southern tourist zone.

The new Line 4, built by Concessionaria Rio Barra as part of a public-private partnership, stretches for 16km from Barra to the emblematic neighbourhood of Ipanema, has six stations and is expected to provide service to more than 300,000 people when it commences normal operations on September 19.

For now, it will only be available for use by fans with tickets to Olympic events scheduled for the same day they are riding the metro.

The metro-line project was built at a cost of 9.7 billion reais (Dh11.01bn), with the Rio de Janeiro state government providing 8.5bn reais of the total and the rest coming from Concessionaria Rio Barra, which is made up of the Brazilian engineering companies Queiroz Galvao, Odebrecht and Carioco Engenharia.

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