The SIR system, also known as “Metrobus”, is the new collective transport system of the City of Padua. It is made up of a rubber-wheeled monorail tram and more then 90% of its network is in reserved lines.
Tram runs on a central monorail built into a running platform in reinforced concrete with a suitable roughened surface, wide enough to hold the maximum encumbrance of the wheels.
This solution reduces the cost of road surface maintenance and avoids the formation of tram line ruts.
The vehicles are electrically driven with a single contact wire. Power is supplied by small substations located along the network, so to minimize the impact on the urban context.
Stations have been located in order to create a capillary access system for users. In particular, along line 2, there is a station beneath an overhead road roundabout anchored with tie rods near the Net Center on Via Venezia, and 2 stops with road underpass along Viale San Marco.
The new infrastructures also require the construction of important works, in particular a 3-point star road underpass for line 2 near Piazzale della Stanga, and for line 3 a bridge over the out-flowing canal, with a single steel span of approximately 90 metres.