As demonstrated by this summer's fare-increase riots—which caused an estimated 1 million protesters in São Paolo and other Brazilian cities to take to the streets—public transportation is a crucial issue for the burgeoning country. Next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games will add tremendous strain on the country's infrastructure. Brazil's federal government is not sitting idly, however: Its largest-ever public transit project launched in November.
Located in northeast Brazil, Fortaleza is the fifth-largest city in the nation, home to 3.6 million residents, and a major tourist destination thanks to its beaches. The new East Line of the Fortaleza metro is the largest public works project in the history of the state of Ceará, according to Marco Escóssia, the spokesman at Ceará's infrastructure ministry SEINFRA. It is expected to carry 400,000 straphangers daily when it opens in 2019.