MEDIA ADVISORY: Latin American Transit Agencies Launch New Transportation Association

WHAT: Top executives from Latin America’s most influential transit agencies will hold the first official meeting and opening ceremony for the launch of the Latin American Association for Bus Rapid Transit and Integrated Transport Systems or Asociación Latinoaméricana de Sistemas BRT y Sistemas Integrados de Transporte (ALABRT). Participants include the presidents and senior staff of 17 transit agencies from cities in Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Chile. Officials from Bogota’s Transmilenio in Columbia and Curitiba’s RIT in Brazil, two of the region’s most successful BRT systems, will also be present. The three-day event is hosted by Mayor of Curitiba Carlos Alberto Richa, sponsored by the Andean Development Corporation, and organized by the World Resources Institute’s EMBARQ Network.

WHEN:
Wednesday, April 14 to April 16, 2010

WHERE:
Av. Cândido de Abreu, 817 - Centro Cívico - Curitiba/PR.

WHO: Carlos Alberto Richa, Mayor of Curitiba, and Eduardo Guimarães, Curitiba’s secretary of international relations, will host the association’s first meeting and launch ceremony.

Jaime Lerner, former Mayor of Curitiba and renowned architect and urban planner, will be named Honorary President of ALABRT.

Luis Antonio Lindau, president of EMBARQ’s Center for Sustainable Transport in Brazil (CTS-Brasil)

Luis Gutierrez, EMBARQ’s director for Latin America

WHY: ALABRT seeks to promote sustainable transport in Latin America by helping transit agencies share knowledge and build the capacity needed to improve the quality of their services, foster an efficient and competitive transport industry, and develop solutions to improve health, quality of life and economic competitiveness in Latin American cities.

RSVP: Rejane Fernandes, CTS-Brasil communications coordinator +55 (51) 3312-6324 or rfernandes@ctsbrasil.org