*Zeca Dirceu is a Congressman representing the Workers’ Party (PT) in the State of Paraná and is also the deputy leader of the PT in the Brazilian Parliament.
In these times of preparation for the forthcoming World Cup and Olympic Games in Brazil, the situation of urban mobility in Brazil needs to be observed. Currently, in our country, the demand for public transport has been taking a tumble. Policies of encouraging the purchase of private cars and motorcycles have meant that Brazilians are giving greater and greater preference to individual transport. However, there is one aspect of this scene that is highly worrying. Together with the fall in demand, another point is that it is more and more expensive to use public transport in Brazil. While the demand for bus services has fallen by 30%, the fares have soared by 60% more than the inflation as measured by the INPC, since 1995.
While the population is no longer using the buses, the use of subway and commuter train systems in the main metropolises has increased significantly – but the rail transport network has grown at a slower rate. Demand for subway transport services has risen by 54.6% while the network has gone up by only 26% over the same period. In the case of the commuter train networks in the country, the number of passengers has soared by 150% in a period where the network has increased by only 8%.
The situation is indeed worrying, but can be reversed. Curitiba, for example, shall be one of the host cities of the 2014 World Cup and has been receiving a package of investments for the execution of work to improve mobility. My efforts and those of other Congresspeople is continuous, in the Transport Commission (Comissão de Viação e Transporte – CVT) to speed up the investments in this segment. Efforts are also being pooled together so that we may implement the High Speed Train (HST) in our country. This train shall connect three metropolitan regions and travel between Campinas to Rio de Janeiro. The creation of the HST shall provide conditions for this kind of investment to also be made in Paraná.
Foz do Iguaçu is the second most important tourist destination in Brazil. A tourist attraction of this size needs airports constantly enhanced. Together with the Iguaçu Fund and political leaders in Foz, we have already started talks with the coordinator of the PAC, Maurício Muniz, for the improvement of the region’s airports. The improvement of infrastructure and also the meeting of demands by the airlines are extremely important for the development of urban mobility in the country. At the CVT we are constantly hosting public hearings to demand results from the airlines.
In terms of public transport by land, I understand that this is a crucial moment so that the Prosecution office, the Audit Courts of the Brazilian States, the councilors, mayors and bus concessionaires step up the tempo of this discussion, preparing and implementing quick solutions for the improvement of bus transport in the municipalities. It is also essential that the Federal Audit Court and the General Financial Controller’s Office expand preventive inspection.
The decision announced by the government of President Dilma, to make the concession of some airports to private companies, means significant progress in work towards the World Cup. We must also praise the fact that the Government has now cast aside its prejudice against the expansion of investments in this area. It is now important that the same be done with railways, as Brazil can and must offer quality transport, both by air and by land.
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