Botafogo Station (; previously Botafogo/Coca-Cola Station) is a subway station on the
Rio de Janeiro Metro
The Rio de Janeiro Metro (, ), commonly referred to as just the ''Metrô'' () is a rapid transit network that serves the city of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Metrô was inaugurated on 5 March 1979, and consisted o ...
that serves the neighbourhood of
Botafogo
Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...
in the
South Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
The station was renamed on 1 January 2021, from Botafogo Station to Botafogo/Coca-Cola Station, after a
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
purchase by the Brazilian branch of
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...
. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Metrô Rio had been operating at a loss – in July 2020, the passenger flow was just 57% of what it had been in the same period before the pandemic, and the
accumulated deficit was already at
R$ 150 million.
The station's naming rights sale was used as an alternate mean to generate revenue, and it was chosen for the purchase due to its proximity to Coca-Cola's headquarters, on Botafogo Beach.
[ This change was subsequently reverted between 5 and 7 November 2022, removing the branding and restoring the station's original name.]
File:Interior da Estação Botafogo Coca-Cola.jpg, The station in March 2022, when it was still "Botafogo/Coca-Cola"
File:Interior da Estação Botafogo.jpg, The station in February 2023, after its name was reverted to simply "Botafogo"
Passenger traffic
Although the station has been in operation since 1981, passenger data is only made available from 1998 onwards.
References
{{Metrô Rio navbox
Line 1 (Rio de Janeiro)
Metrô Rio stations
Railway stations in Brazil opened in 1981