TCU report indicates that Brazil is experiencing a lack of investment in the railway sector and a lack of track maintenance
THE TCU (Federal Court of Auditors) identified that 56% of Brazil’s railway network has a flow of less than 2 trains per day. The data represents a route of approximately 17,000 km of railways that are underutilized in the country. According to the Court of Auditors’ survey, this is an effect of the lack of investment and maintenance in the railway sector. Read more full of the judgment (PDF) – 14 MB).
Of the approximately 30,530 km of railways declared in the report, only 3,860 km had heavy traffic, while 2,300 were classified as medium flows. As the Poder3601/3 of the railways are not used in Brazil and are abandoned due to lack of economic viability.
Given this scenario, the TCU suggested that the ANTT (National Land Transport Agency), the Ministry of Transport and the Infra SA delve deeper into the reasons that led to the abandonment of this number of railway sections and the low use of some other routes to prevent new projects from falling into this ostracism.
Another recommendation from the Court of Auditors is to evaluate alternative uses for abandoned railway infrastructure. This is a problem that has already been addressed by the Ministry of Transport, which has coordinated the return of a 1.2 km stretch of railway tracks. Course for the city of Araraquara to use the area for flood protection works.
In addition to the lack of investment in more efficient routes and in the maintenance of existing tracks, the TCU also identified other obstacles to the development of the rail freight transport sector. These are:
- lack of transparency and clarity of information about the domestic cargo market, which limits the understanding of current dynamics and makes it difficult to formulate effective commercial policies and strategies;
- high logistics cost of road freight;
- difficulty in contracting rail transport services;
- barrier to the entry of new logistics operators into the rail transport market, with emphasis on the power of concessionaires, high operating costs and insufficient rail infrastructure.
With this scenario, the TCU authorized inspections at the Ministry of Transport, Infra SA and ANTT to assess the measures adopted to encourage increased participation of the railway sector in the domestic cargo market and provide transparency to data and analyses managed by the public authorities regarding the domestic market.
#countrys #railways #traffic #trains #day