Operation of Line 5 of the Metro will be granted to the private sector

Governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) has announced on this Tuesday, 21st, the plan to pass Line 5 – Lilac, currently under construction between the stations Adolfo Pinheiro and Chácara Klabin, at the south region of the capital city, to the private sector operation. However, he has not detailed what kind of concession this will be.

Under construction since 2011, the line had already been scheduled for completion in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Now, the schedule is for 2018 and, according to the governor’s words, is still “strictly within the time limit”. Originally budgeted in 6.9 billion of Reais, the agreement is estimated by the government to be at 9 billion of Reais.

“We are opening the concession bid and the company who wins will operate the entire Line 5, even the part already concluded and in operation. The whole Line 5 will be private”, stated Alckmin, in addition to affirming that he is “positive” regarding the effect of this measure on the employment and improvement in logistics.

The secretary of Metropolitan Transportation, Clodoaldo Pelissioni, also stated yesterday that one the possibilities would be to require, in return from the private sector, the construction of an extension at the other end of the Line, going in direction to the south region, from Capão Redondo to Jardim Ângela. However, this has not been defined yet – the project for the possible sector, under planning since 2012, has never been done.

The governor preferred not to let out details and stated that possibilities are in open. “We will verify which best shape is for this. We can make the concession for more investment, one in which the winner will be the one who will invest the most, or more onerously, in which the winner is the one who will pay the most to the government”, Alckmin added.

On other hand, the governor has highlighted that the concession for the Line 5 would be different from the one made to Line 4 – Yellow, which is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

ViaQuatro, the company that operates Line 4, is so far the only private organization to operate the subway. It is formed by the companies Andrade Gutierrez, Camargo Corrêa and the group Soares Penido. Between 2013 and June 2015, the company has received 42,6 million of Reais to operate the line and had to invest around 450 million purchasing trains and other equipment necessary to the section operation under construction for over a decade.

Employment. The information of the State Secretary for Metropolitan Transportation is that one of the reasons behind this change would be to facilitate the personnel management.

Currently, only Metrô can hire employers through public tender and those who pass have job stability. The state has been facing strikes almost every year during the salary campaigns from the subway workers – and fights under the Law to fire 38 strikers disconnected from the company last year. In the lower court, the employees had to be readmitted, but the process is still ongoing analysis by the Regional Labor Court (TRT).

The possibility has brought rage on the Subway Labor Union, which promises more strikes in case the measure goes forward. “We already have employees working on Line 5, on the section between Chácara Klabin and Capão Redondo. If the idea is to improve management, that Metrô wants to make the concession, what is being said to society is that they can’t manage the lines alone”, stated the general secretary of the organization, Alex Fernandes.

Constructions. There are two tunnel-boring machines on Line 5, working on the interconnection between 10 under construction stations. The promise is that the section will serve as connection between the lines 1 – Blue and 2 – Green, and will unburden both lines 4 – Yellow and 9 – Emerald from the Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), which is currently operating on the limit of their capacities.