1001 Smart Cities
🇪🇨 Quito

Quito Metro Line 1: CITYFLO 350 Automatic Train Control Signalling

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 9 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Quito Metro's Line 1 (15 stations, Quitumbe to El Labrador, 18 CAF-built trains) runs on Alstom's CITYFLO 350 automatic train control. Inaugurated 21 December 2022, a limited passenger trial in May 2023 was halted after nine days, with the operator citing safety reasons; full commercial service began on 1 December 2023. In March 2026 Alstom signed a US$27 million, 48-month contract to maintain the signalling.

Live 📅 since 2023
Outcome🎯 Succeeded
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byMetro de Quito
Scale🏙️ City-wide

📊 Impact

218,000 average weekday trips in May 2026 (+4.3% on April) and roughly 150 million cumulative trips since commercial service began in December 2023, per the operator's monthly bulletin.

🚲 MobilityPublic transport

Sources

↗ Metro de Quito (operator)Operator; line and service basics.
↗ Metro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator)Published 17 June 2026218,000 average weekday trips in May 2026, +4.3% vs April; ~150 million cumulative trips by end of May 2026.
↗ Alstom (press release, March 2026)Published 4 March 2026Signalling maintenance contract announcement (blocks automated fetch with 403; contents confirmed via trade press).
↗ Railway-News (trade press)US$27M, 48 months, work from March 2026; obsolescence management and upgrades; describes CITYFLO 350 with no CBTC label.
↗ Railway Gazette InternationalPublished 5 December 2023Full commercial opening 1 December 2023.
Show 1 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ Wikipedia — Quito Metro Line 1Stations/trains chronology incl. the nine-day May 2023 trial halt.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2023. 3 of 6 sources carry a publication date, from 5 December 2023 to 17 June 2026.

When the sources were published

  1. Railway Gazette International · pressRailway Gazette International
  2. Alstom · vendorAlstom (press release, March 2026)
  3. Metro de Quito · operatorMetro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Entered the record

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 9 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 9 addressable claims, 6 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 9

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-2f8ee3da7af65408 quantitative
Quito Metro's Line 1 (15 stations, Quitumbe to El Labrador, 18 CAF-built trains)
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Railway Gazette confirms all three figures in one paragraph: the line 'starts at Quitumbe in the south of the capital and runs 22·6 km underground through the city centre to El Labrador in the north', was built with 'CAF (18 six-car trainsets)', and residents were seen 'cutting ribbons to officially open each of the 15 stations.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Railway Gazette International
Claim 2 clm-0340d3ad96b95a07 quantitative
runs on Alstom's CITYFLO 350 automatic train control
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Alstom's own release states: 'Alstom also previously designed and implemented the CITYFLO 350 signalling system for Line 1,' confirming the CITYFLO 350 designation for this installation.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Alstom (press release, March 2026)
Claim 3 clm-bd3b77ba10ba76b7 quantitative
Inaugurated 21 December 2022
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'A formal inauguration ceremony had been held on December 21 2022, when the launch of a preview passenger service was planned for January 5.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Railway Gazette International
Claim 4 clm-61856a7e4bd4a604 quantitative
a limited passenger trial in May 2023 was halted after nine days
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'Peak-time only revenue services serving nine stations finally began on May 2, but were subsequently suspended on May 11 with the operator citing safety reasons' — May 2 to May 11 is nine days.
Caveat
The entry's own source note attributes this fact to the Wikipedia listing ('Stations/trains chronology incl. the nine-day May 2023 trial halt'), but the current Wikipedia article contains no mention of May 2023, a trial, a suspension, or CITYFLO at all — checked against the raw article text and infobox, whose 'signalling' field is empty. The only listed source that actually carries this fact is Railway Gazette International; the sourceLabel here has been corrected accordingly.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Railway Gazette International
Claim 5 clm-fa2b91b63b849460 quantitative
full commercial service began on 1 December 2023
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Railway Gazette: 'Full revenue services on the Quito metro finally began on December 1' (article dated 5 December 2023). Wikipedia separately gives commercial operations as beginning '1 December 2023' — though it supports only this single date, not the surrounding May 2023/CITYFLO material the entry's source list attributes to it (see the caveat on the preceding claim).
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Railway Gazette International
  2. Wikipedia — Quito Metro Line 1
Claim 6 clm-fd3f8e95a37b73e0 quantitative
In March 2026 Alstom signed a US$27 million, 48-month contract to maintain the signalling.
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Alstom's release (dated 4 March 2026): 'The contract, valued at 27 million dollars (around 23 million euros), will run for 48 months. Alstom will start the work in March 2026,' covering 'preventive and corrective maintenance of the railway signalling system of Line 1.' Railway-News's own headline/URL and the entry's source note attribute the same US$27M/48-month/March-2026 figures to it, and independent trade-press coverage found via search (Global Railway Review, Railway Supply, Industry EMEA) repeats identical figures — consistent with Alstom's release being the common origin.
Caveat
Railway-News (railway-news.com) itself could not be directly verified in this review — the site returned HTTP 502 on every attempt (curl with a browser user agent, WebFetch, and the Wayback Machine all failed). The entry's note that Alstom's page 'blocks automated fetch with 403' also did not reproduce — a curl fetch with a browser user agent loaded it cleanly (HTTP 200). Figures here are confirmed via Alstom's own release plus matching third-party trade-press summaries, not via a direct read of railway-news.com.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Alstom (press release, March 2026)
  2. Railway-News (trade press)
Claim 7 clm-dd7e5712dd27a723 quantitative
218,000 average weekday trips in May 2026
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'Durante mayo de 2026, el sistema registró un promedio de 218 mil viajes diarios en días laborables (de lunes a viernes)' — during May 2026 the system registered an average of 218,000 daily trips on weekdays.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Metro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator)
Claim 8 clm-45261091ddeb367a quantitative
(+4.3% on April)
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'La cifra representa un crecimiento del 4,3 % respecto a abril, cuando se registraron 209 mil viajes diarios' — the figure represents 4.3% growth over April, when 209,000 daily trips were recorded.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Metro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator)
Claim 9 clm-480e1d30cb8051b8 quantitative
roughly 150 million cumulative trips since commercial service began in December 2023
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'Al cierre de mayo de 2026, el sistema acumuló 150 millones de viajes desde el inicio de operaciones' — as of the end of May 2026, the system had accumulated 150 million trips since the start of operations. This is stated by the operator as a running total, not a figure derived by summing monthly numbers ourselves — it passes the derived-arithmetic check.
Caveat
The bulletin says only 'since the start of operations' (desde el inicio de operaciones) — it does not itself specify which start date that count runs from. The entry equates this with the 1 December 2023 commercial-service date, but the source never fixes the date, and the line has three candidate 'start' moments in its own chronology (inauguration 21 Dec 2022, the nine-day May 2023 trial, commercial service 1 Dec 2023). The gap is unlikely to be material — the May 2023 trial ran only nine days on 9 of 15 stations — but the December 2023 anchor is the entry's own interpretation, not wording the source uses.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Metro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-22-evidence-baseline effective 2026-08-07 · created 2026-08-22

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:b525e742d7ee9d3a69d83104d80bc53eb444527a271b96a449736f0c5c405a1a
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
9
of 9 claims mapped
6
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Metro de Quito
Actor types
utility
Funding model
Not recorded
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

6 source dossiers

Metro de Quito (operator) metrodequito.gob.ec · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-f6aa8850faea4f28
Publisher
Name not classified · metrodequito.gob.ec
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Operator; line and service basics.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Metro de Quito — Boletín estadístico mayo 2026 (operator) metrodequito.gob.ec · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-07fcf1dfeefcb105
Publisher
Name not classified · metrodequito.gob.ec
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-06-17
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

218,000 average weekday trips in May 2026, +4.3% vs April; ~150 million cumulative trips by end of May 2026.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Alstom (press release, March 2026) alstom.com · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-6cbcff13e7c2a283
Publisher
Name not classified · alstom.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-03-04
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Signalling maintenance contract announcement (blocks automated fetch with 403; contents confirmed via trade press).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Railway-News (trade press) railway-news.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ece92fe76d90f8c3
Publisher
Name not classified · railway-news.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

US$27M, 48 months, work from March 2026; obsolescence management and upgrades; describes CITYFLO 350 with no CBTC label.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Railway Gazette International railwaygazette.com · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-6a2b62581eca343e
Publisher
Name not classified · railwaygazette.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-12-05
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Full commercial opening 1 December 2023.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Wikipedia — Quito Metro Line 1 en.wikipedia.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-56c2b5f5225f840e
Publisher
Name not classified · en.wikipedia.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-07
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Stations/trains chronology incl. the nine-day May 2023 trial halt.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇩🇪 Digital Train Control Frankfurt · Frankfurt am Main Same CBTC signalling, opposite builds: Frankfurt retrofits it onto century-old Stadtbahn; Quito built it into a new metro in 2023. 🇸🇦 Riyadh Metro · Riyadh Both run CBTC signalling: Riyadh's GoA4 metro is fully driverless (2024-25); Quito's Line 1 (2023) keeps drivers, automating control only. 🇨🇴 TransMilenio Zero-Emission Electric Bus Fleet · Bogotá Latin American transit tech, different modes: Bogota electrified ~1,485 buses since 2019; Quito automated its metro's signalling in 2023.

Explore the wider context

🔑 Your Smart City Is Owned by Someone Else🚌 Public transport guide🏙️ Quito city profile🚲 Mobility projects📖 Bus rapid transit (BRT)📖 CBTC (communications-based train control)📖 Congestion pricing
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Quito Metro Line 1: CITYFLO 350 Automatic Train Control Signalling” — Quito, Ecuador. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/quito-metro-signaling/ (last verified 2026-08-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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