Brazil has expanded its train and subway network by only 11% since the World Cup, despite promises

Almost eight years have passed and Brazil has made little progress in its rail transport network. Since the World Cup in 2014, the country has expanded its urban lines by just 11%, or 113 km, almost equivalent to the distance between São Paulo and Sorocaba.

Today, the network of subways, trains, monorails and trams extends over 1,116 km throughout the national territory, close to what two Chinese cities alone, Beijing and Shanghai, accumulate, and the same as a trip between Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

“It’s not much. The growth of our network is very small compared to the demand we have”, says Joubert Flores, chairman of the board of ANPTrilhos (National Association of Passenger Carriers on Rails), which gathers data until 2020.

During this period, the tracks lengthened at a rate of 2% (or 19 km) per year, on average. The 2014 world championships, the openings for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and important expansions in São Paulo in 2018, such as the 5-Lilac and 4-Yellow lines, pushed that number up.

“But if you look at the current moment, the only place with definite growth is São Paulo,” says Flores. In most capitals, the subway is still a distant reality, as in Manaus and Curitiba, to stay in those with more than 1 million inhabitants.

In addition to the slow expansion, the 12 capitals that have a subway network coexist with projects that never got off the ground, works stopped, corruption locks, crowded wagons, expensive tickets and inefficient lines or lines that do not cover the periphery.

Class A is the one that travels by subway the most: 9% said they used the system in 2017, against 6% in class B, 3% in class C and 1% in classes D/E, according to a survey by the National Transport Confederation ( CNT). In that year, only 6% of displacements in the country were made by rail.

The coronavirus pandemic also brought down demand and made the sector experience its biggest crisis in 2020, accumulating a deficit of BRL 8 billion just with tariffs and freezing openings. The Salvador subway, for example, still carries 30% fewer passengers than in 2019.

The Bahian government was criticized for deactivating the city’s Suburb Train last year, which had operated for 160 years at a fare of R$0.50. The modal will be replaced by an already delayed monorail, imposed by the only consortium of Chinese companies to participate in the bidding, at a cost of R$ 4.10.

The street vendor Marcelo Araújo, 45, says he took the transport to pick up the goods and sell them in the Paripe neighborhood: “It’s missing”, he says. The railroad was also used by fishermen and shellfish gatherers working on the coast of Todos-os-Santos Bay.

“Rail transport has a greater capacity to integrate fragmented cities. It needs to be understood as an instrument to combat inequalities”, defends urban planner Daniel Caribé, one of the coordinators of the Salvador Mobility Observatory.

The state argues that the system needed to be modernized. “The train had serious maintenance problems. It was old, had no spare parts, broke down frequently and had drainage problems”, says Grace Gomes, superintendent of the Urban Development Department.

Salvador was one of the capitals that increased its network the most after the World Cup, with the construction of the first two subway lines and their expansion to the current 33 km — another 5 km stretch should have its testing phase started in October by the CCR concessionaire .

Rio de Janeiro was another, with expansions and the construction of line 4, which connects the south zone to Barra da Tijuca, in addition to three tram lines. Even so, the games left entire construction sites at a standstill. “The priority is to finish, otherwise, in order to return, it is necessary to mobilize everything again and it is much more expensive”, says Joubert Flores, from ANPTrilhos.

The biggest symbol in Rio is the Gávea station, which should have been ready in 2016, but turned into a large hole flooded with water and hundreds of concrete pieces piled up in a shed after signs of overpricing. It remains to excavate 1.2 km of tunnel and complete 58% of the station.

Recife, Brasília and Porto Alegre, in turn, are some of the capitals that have barely advanced since 2014. In the first, a station created near the Arena de Pernambuco, in the metropolitan region, ended up underused after the events.

One of the main demands of the population is that the subway will serve a part of the west and north of the city, which is completely discovered by the modal. Overcrowding, high tariffs and failures in the electrical system are also obstacles to users.

The capital of Rio Grande do Sul, on the other hand, stopped openings that year, after delivering three subway stations and an aircar to the airport.

The DF only opened two of its 24 stations in the period and is now preparing a bid to expand the Samambaia branch.

In Belo Horizonte, the stranding is even older. The only metro line has been the same size (28 km) for 20 years. The Government of Minas Gerais announced in September a second line, but it still depends on the creation of a new company and the privatization of CBTU (Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos).

Fortaleza even won a 13 km tramway in the middle of the actions for the Cup, but it came two years late and it still works in a test period, without charging tickets. It connects the periphery to the beaches, but it does not have a bus ticket, nor does it operate on Sundays and holidays, as well as the two subway lines.

A third line and a new VLT branch are still planned for this year. The works to implement the vehicle have already required the removal of 22 communities, with around 5,000 people impacted. They have been living for more than ten years on social rent and are waiting for promised housing projects, as in several other capitals.

Teresina is another one that depends on a small 14 km tram system, but there is no date set for implementing modernization and expansion projects to other regions, which are still being concluded.

Like BH and Recife, the cities of João Pessoa, Natal and Maceió have systems operated by the federal company CBTU. The capital of Potiguar is awaiting work on two new lines that intend to expand the network from 56 km to 84 km.

According to Joubert Flores, this has been the only role of the federal government in the transport of passengers on rails. “In most parts of the world, the initiative to create corridors came from the governments of the three spheres. Brazil is a point outside the curve. The federal government makes loans through the BNDES, for example, but it does not pay for it, it does not participate”, he says. .

ANPTrilhos and CNT have now worked for a regulatory framework in the sector, along the lines of what was done in basic sanitation, to attract private companies. “The public-private partnership is an alternative for when the government cannot do it alone. And to attract investors it is necessary to send the message that it will be a State policy, not a government policy”, he opines.