Alstom advocates for giving priority to regional train
Folha de S. Paulo
The President of Alstom in Brazil, Philippe Delleur, declared making average speed regional trains in São Paulo would be the "safer and shorter" path for Brazil to get to the bullet train.
In an interview to Folha, Delleur said the postponement of the public bidding, which should be announced today, will be an "excellent decision". "But there is no purpose in postponing it every three months if nothing changes", said Delleur, CEO of Alstom in the country since 2009. For him, the problem is in the civil works. The national contractors, he said, say the value provided by the Government is undersized. The total project is estimated by the ANTT (Terrestrial Transportation National Agency) at R$ 33.1 billion (US$ 20.7 billion).
Delleur said the companies are already struggling to have the equity required to join the project as partners. And should the work become more expensive than expected, more equity or funding will be needed. The BNDES (National Development Bank) can finance up to R$ 20 billion (US$ 12.5 billion). "Our conversations with investors indicate it is really hard to find such a great value of private equity. The financial investors will not put their money if there is no major clarification regarding the project. And if the estimate is not R$ 33 [billion] (US$ 20.7 billion), but R$ 50 [billion] (US$ 31.3 billion), it increases the size of the problem to be solved".
According to Delleur, changes requested by those interested in the nationalization of the train are useless. According to him, what is in the public rules could even be increased as a means to encourage national rail industry. The extra time until the new date of the bidding will also be used to carry out further studies on the connections with other systems of transportation, mainly in São Paulo. Since it is essential that the high-speed line be integrated to the rail system, Delleur defends the regional trains.
According to studies made, nearly 70% of the demand of the bullet train will come from connections among the cities in the State of São Paulo. Therefore, he says, the ideal would be to test a rail system in those connections, get to know the real demand and then, move on the to higher speed trains. "Great part of the demand is not between SP-RJ, but around São Paulo. The project should bring an answer to that current demand and, to do that, the regional trains can be quickly implemented, in three to four years; capture the demand, stabilize and use such resources to continue the project of the high speed train".
The Government of São Paulo has a project for four regional lines, connecting the capital to Campinas, São José dos Campos, Sorocaba and Santos. According to the Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports, with the bullet train, Campinas and São José would be included, and the Government of São Paulo would concentrate on the two other. Regional trains have maximum speeds of 250 km/h, while the high speed trains operate at up to 350 km/h.