Brazil - Brazzil Mag - Brazil Has Neglected Its Railroads for 25 Years

Brazil's Presidential Chief of Staff (ministra da Casa Civil), Dilma Rousseff, says that completion of the Brazilian North-South railroad will be one of the government's main investment targets this year in the area of infrastructure.

She said US$ 59.86 million had been earmarked for the project because it will "integrate the distant interior of the country with the rest of Brazil."

According to Rousseff, the stretch of 215 kilometers between Açailândia in the state of Maranhão and Aguiarnópolis in Tocantins, which links up with the port of Itaqui, will be completed.

Some of the funding, US$ 17.7 million, explained Rousseff, is from the government's Investment Pilot Project (PPI).

The details for the construction and financing of another stretch of 505 kilometers from Araguaina and Palmas remain to be worked out.

Rousseff said the stretch from Anápolis to Pátio Santa Isabel in the state of Goiás will cost US$ 200 million and begin in 2007.

"Brazil has not invested this much in railroads in 25 years," said the minister, adding that there were firm plans to spend another US$ 213 million on the Transnordestina railroad connecting the ports of Suape in Pernambuco and Pecém in Ceará.

Doubtful.....
written by Guest, January 04, 2006

...that US$ 60 millions will cover the costs of 215 kms of railway.

And the next 505 kms will at best take another decade or 2, eventually.

You are in an election year. Promises will remain promises as usual, never facts. Large projects can be dreamed but the spending will have to be done in a decade, may be.
Therefore not by Lula's government anyway.
Everything can then be said...as it doesnt cost a dime to those who make you dream with their perpetual and daily lies !

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Brazil Will Never Get Out of That Toilet
written by Guest, January 04, 2006

:grin she has been swimming in for the past 500 years. That is because the white people of Brazil are stupid lame assed f-cks who do not know how to bring the country of the 17th century toilet it's been and into the 21st.

Hire yourselves some "real" Anglo-Saxon Americans and maybe you can finally stop swimming in the liquid sh-t you call a nation. :grin

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...
written by Guest, January 04, 2006

One thing is certain, if Brazil is to go forward and make great progress it cant be done without a backbone. Railways are the backbone of a country. Canada, USA and so on move tons of commodities by rail, they also provides alot of jobs while removing heavy loads from our over burdened highways and lastly per ton of freight the pollution is a fraction.

You cannot progress with out an excellent and efficient railway system. As for costs, privatize them and sell the stocks. The north american railways have provided great returns!!!

I was an engineer in this industry for 13 years and so I speak from experience.

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complete agreement with you !
written by Guest, January 05, 2006

So why was the brazilian railways completely neglected for the last 25 years ?
And during these 25 years there were also good times, not only bad ones, in the economy.

And were not the same promises already given by all the previous governments ?

But promises remained promises.

And if you have been in this industry, can anyone build 215 kms of railroads for only US$ 60 millions in Brazil ? Even not efficient ?

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...
written by Guest, January 05, 2006

The costs of building depends on terrain the technology used, materials and wages. As I previously commented I have 13 years experience on the Railway and can tell you that it can cost up to 1 million per mile (1.6kilometers).
Depends on many factors, but the big ones are terrain prep for example bridges ? Steep grades?. These are of course north american prices where realestate and labour is expensive. The terrain there can be snow covered mountain passes to big city realestate costs and logistics.

I would think here in Brazil it should cost less per kilometer but it depends on how many people are going to receive a JEITINHO and the technology used. One thing is Certain a big country like this requires a major rail system.

Who and where are the proffessionals to do this and bring Brazil to the 21 century ? As stated before a railway provides many long term well paid jobs and privatization both raises alot of money as well as great returns. No, it does not have to take a long time I was part of all these things and they all happened in less then 10 years.

The government that actually accomplishes such would be truly helping its people and country.

Eng.

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I agree with with you
written by Guest, January 05, 2006

that the government that actually accomplishes such would be truly helping its people and country.

But as you know and the article clearly said it that for 25 years nothing was done in Brazil.
Not even during the first 3 years of Lula's mandate.
If you did it in a country in less than 10 years, I guess it was a small country and not the size of Brazil. That is a big difference.

The same is true for brazilian roads and highways. And suddenly like a magician, Lula's government, is freeing Reais 350 millions to repair and do the maintenance not done in years and years of their 26000 kms of roads and highways. They even said that the job will be finished in 6 months.

How could it be possible to do such a huge job in 6 months AND at a cost of only US$ 5000.- per km ?

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USA railways !
written by Guest, January 05, 2006

Sorry Mr Engineer, the USA railways system was not built in 10 years as you said but in over 100 years.
And the whole maintenance/repair of so many thousands of miles and miles of railways the USA have, maintenance and repair did not take 10 years either.
And the costs of maintenance and repairs have nothing to do with the construction of a new railway.

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...
written by Guest, January 09, 2006

From the Sorry Engineer,

Maybe I did not explain myself well, I was part of a major reorganization where we went from a crown corporation to a private company and it took less then 10 years to do all of this.The company went on to buy other companies, rebuild re construct and yes new construction where needed. Shareholders have done very well and the tax payers are no longer asked to bail out the crown corp.

Yes, I know exactly how old the rail systems are and it did not take 100 years to build them. As for cost please note my comments mention what it costs per mile to build and that there are variables. I did not say it was cheap either, I just stated that it should be less costly in Brazil per mile then in say north america.

One more thing my family is Brazilian and I am not from the USA. My engineering career around as taken me around the world and I have much more then 10 years experience in this field.

Mr. Engineer

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Well said
written by Guest, January 09, 2006

My father worked for the railway in england and canada !!

So to the idiot who questioned the engineers knowledge. Here is a little history

"On November 7, 1885 the Last Spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, making good on the original promise. While the railway was completed four years after the original 1881 deadline, it was completed over five years ahead of the new date of 1891 that Macdonald gave in 1881.

If you want to add to this you can say that from 1869 when the first trains were running out east to when Canada had a coast to coast system was 12 years !!!!

100 hundred years ??????????!!!!!!!!

This is Canadian history and canada is the biggest country in the world at this point. So again to the idiot who questioned the engineer. Look at a map of Canada and dont forget the great and massive rocky mountains.

Today with the technology oneof laying down new railway is much quicker, Brazil will never step into this or the next century without it.

Im not american either, so dont bother with the stupid anti american crap.

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Well said
written by Guest, January 09, 2006

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