Studies will indicate viability of HSR to Belo Horizonte and Curitiba

The first Brazilian HSR has not yet been formalized, but the government is already preparing the hiring of feasibility studies for three other high-speed rail links: São Paulo-Curitiba, São Paulo-Belo Horizonte and São Paulo-Triângulo Mineiro. The submission of proposals for the Rio-São Paulo-Campinas project, which will define the technology provider and the responsible for the operation of the track, is scheduled for August 13.

Once the outcome of the auction is known, in September, the Empresa de Planejamento e Logística (EPL) plans to start an engineering executive project of the work. This job will detail the route of the first bullet train and point its exact investment needs. The intention of the CEO of EPL, Bernardo Figueiredo, is simultaneously conducting technical and economic feasibility studies of the new stretches. We want to start it all in the second half. It is a job for about 12 months, Figueiredo said.

He explains that the studies for the three new tracks will indicate whether or not it is worth doing these stretches, based on an estimate of current and future demand of passengers, projections of required investment and the main difficulties from the environmental point of view. In the case of the high-speed rail (HSR) that will be auctioned this year, all these jobs were done by a consortium led by UK’s consultancy Halcrow. Now, Figueiredo believes that the state-owned company has sufficient knowledge to coordinate studies, with the help of companies that will be hired to collect data and conduct field research.

To those who accuse the government of megalomania, when speaking of the new bullet train tracks without even having made the first possible, Figueiredo said that the very raison d’être of the EPL is to create a stock of infrastructure projects for post-2014, extrapolating the mandate of President Dilma Rousseff, looking at the long term.

We need to break the culture that is: investing in infrastructure is an event. It is not an event; it is a process, which requires continuous action, the president of the transport state-owned company said. He points out that the government can not expect the saturation of the current structures, such as highway Nova Dutra (Rio-São Paulo), and the major airports to plan new works capable of overcoming these bottlenecks. Otherwise, rushed and poorly done projects will happen, even when resources are available, the Dilma’s assistant said.

Figueiredo, despite openly defend the high-speed rail, considers that carrying out studies of new bullet trains does not mean a decision already taken to build them. Everything depends on an assessment of the costs and potential demand. In the case of the stretch São Paulo-Curitiba, he assumes that the environmental constraints may be overly complicated and even have delayed a less complex work: the extension of Régis Bittencourt, highway connecting the two cities, in the stretch of Serra do Cafezal (state of Paraná). Imagine building a bullet train, he compared.

Besides analyzing these aspects, EPL studies will also identify alternatives for basic routes. A route will be assessed, for the track of Belo Horizonte, with arrival in the region of Volta Redonda – a shorter path than between Belo Horizonte and São Paulo. The Department of Transportation of the State of Rio de Janeiro has already sent a proposal to the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT – Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres), very preliminarily, with this connection between the capital of the state of Minas Gerais and the southwestern of Rio de Janeiro.

If one day the country creates a network of high-speed trains, it will ensure to other operators the use of the railroad Rio-São Paulo-Campinas, first stretch to be built. The concession agreement draft ensures the sharing of infrastructure to future operators of other tracks, including access to their rails and stations. The Brazilian Court of Audit (TCU), already anticipating this possibility, raised this issue in questioning the ANTT. Although the right of way is granted, a technology with low compatibility with that selected for the Rio-SP HSR may have its operational performance affected, the agency said, demonstrating that there may be problems in operating the trains from one track in another railroad, if they have different technologies.

In any event, this is a hypothesis only for the long term. Figueiredo said there is no possibility of retreat in the project of the first bullet train and rules out the postponement of the bid for the choice of operator.

In mid-2014, when the engineering executive project is complete or in advance, the government will make a second bid. It will have infrastructure works as purpose. Figueiredo’s idea is to divide the work into batches – something like ten or more – in order to accelerate the work of contractors and allow the start of operation before 2020.