A road-rail vehicle model D20 currently runs on the old railroad where luxury passenger trains used to run in the last century. Every week, the 2.5-ton vehicle travels along the 131-km section between the cities of Pradópolis and Colina, west region of the state of São Paulo, to perform track maintenance. A 100-ton service train runs periodically on the same section to cut the vegetation that insists in invading the track ground.
The size of both vehicles is the maximum supported today by the old structure. Rail-supporting ties (replaced in the 1940s) are rotten or burnt. Some of them do not exist anymore, thus making freight transportation unfeasible. Within urban areas, the track ground looks more a garbage dump, as there is no barrier to separate the street from the rails. The only thing intact is the crossing gate, in Barrinha downtown. It operates once a week only when the road-rail vehicle or service train passes.
However, this scenario is about to change. In the coming weeks, a great number of workers should start the recovery of the railroad, which already was the major transport mean of the residents in the region. Passenger trains stopped their operations in the 1990s. A few freight cars continued to run until December 2006. Since then, the rails do not receive large-size trains.
The track refurbishment will be carried out by the concessionaire América Latina Logística (ALL) in partnership with Agrovia trading company. This will be the first of 27 sections to be recovered in the next years throughout the country by concessionaires.
Along the 131 km from Pradópolis to Colina, ALL must replace 60,000 ties – with an average number of 458 parts per kilometer. They must also change 185 km of rails. The total investments required to renew the old railroad should amount to US$ 64 million. Funding will be provided by Agrovia and ALL will be in charge of the construction works.
The works will demand a total deadline of 18 months. Once they are finished, in 2013, trains with up to 80 cars, near 100 tons each, might run on the track. The railroad will provide capacity for carrying 4 million tons of sugar to the Port of Santos. Today, the railroad section between Pradópolis and Araraquara, in operation, already enables the transportation of 1.5 million tons of sugar, most of them from Usina São Martinho sugar mill. This section has 67 km of rails, which will also receive improvements to increase the speed of train sets. In Araraquara, the rails are connected to the ALL trunk line that runs towards Santos.
The agreement between ALL and Agrovia will be in force for 25 years. Once the railroad is renewed, ALL intends to search for new markets in Minas Gerais and Goiás, states Leonardo Recondo, Superintendent of Commodities for the concessionaire. This project creates opportunities not only for sugar, but also for grain and fertilizer transportation.
According to his evaluation, the railroad renewal should start a new virtuous cycle in the region. In the past, according to the executive’s point of view, the companies did not have so much interest to install their plants in that region due to logistic problems. Now, this deficiency will be solved.
“Today, our major activity is related to the sugarcane industry. Any measure that is taken to benefit this industry also benefits us,” states Alexandre Rossi, Head of Staff at Pradópolis City Administration. In the city, which has its major activities relying on the Usina São Martinho sugar mill, near 80% of the specialized labor is dedicated to the sugar & alcohol industry. Pradópolis has a little more than 17,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by large sugarcane plantations, which provide raw material for the mill.
The model to recovering the railroad section is already used by ALL. The first large project appeared in a partnership with Cosan and originated Rumo Logística. The new company is investing US$ 753 million in the refurbishment of rails, locomotives and cars. According to Recondo, other businesses are being negotiated, but none of them are completed to this date.
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