HUNDREDS of residents lined the streets of the historic city centre of Cuenca on July 27 to witness the inaugural test run on the Ecuadorian city’s first light rail line.

THE Autonomous Municipal Decentralised Government of Cuenca, Ecuador, has selected the ACTN Consortium to complete the civil works for a 10km light rail line with 27 stations in this Unesco world heritage city.

THE mayor of Quito Mr Mauricio Rodas announced on May 3 that international lenders have accepted changes to the contracting structure for the Quito metro project after Brazilian construction company Odebrecht pulled out of the consortium building the line.

THE Acciona-Odebrecht construction consortium, building the first metro line in the Ecuadorian capital Quito has commissioned Siemens to electrify the line, it was announced on October 21.

ACCIONA is preparing a tunnel boring machine (TBM) in Noblejas, Spain, which will be used to excavate the first metro line in Ecuadorian capital Quito.

THE mayor of Quito Mr Mauricio Rodas officially launched major construction works on the Ecuadorian capital's first metro line on January 19, when a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site of the line's depot and control centre near Quitumbe bus terminal in the south of the city.

ALSTOM has completed manufacturing of the first Citadis LRV for the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca at its plant in La Rochelle. The vehicle is currently in transit and is expected to arrive in Ecuador's third largest city by the end of June.

ECUADOR's National Pre-investment Institute (INP) has awarded Barcelona metro operator TMB a contract worth around $US 1.4m to carry out a prefeasibility study into the construction of an electrified freight network linking key industrial and mining centres with ports on the country's Pacific coast.

THE World Bank has agreed to lend $US 205m to the municipality of Quito to support construction of the first metro line in the Ecuadorian capital, which is due to open in 2016.