High Speed Train to cost US$ 17.9 billion and charge US$ 104 from Rio to SP
Valor Econômico
The first high speed train (HST) in Brazil should connect São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro in 94 minutes. In the express service between the two biggest cities of the country, there will be 14 trains leaving every 20 minutes in 2014. Each train will be made up of two classes, with 458 passengers in total, and tickets ranging from R$ 200 (US$ 104) (economic class) and R$ 325 (US$ 168) (executive), in the peak hours. In the route between São Paulo and Campinas, travel time will be 42 minutes and the ticket, in a single class, R$ 31.20 (US$ 16). The information is part of the study prepared by British consulting Halcrow, reviewed by the Ministry of Transports. The Government will open a public consultation in order to receive suggestions, before elaborating the public bidding rules of the project that should be released in the beginning of 2010.
Estimated in the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, in Portuguese) at US$ 11 billion, the High Speed Train will indeed cost a lot more: R$ 34.6 billion (US$ 17.9 billion), according to the study - seven times the budget for the transposition of São Francisco River, the most expensive project of the PAC exclusively financed with public funds. The train will be built and operated by the private initiative, but the Government concluded there is no way to support the undertaking without some kind of subsidy, either by means of funds from the Treasury or through a financing of the BNDES (National Development Bank), and stockholding of pension funds. The studies are being finished to evaluate the size of the subvention.
At any rate, since 71% of the investment regards civil works, the Government expects to reduce the costs of the high speed train with improvements in the railroad route. It is expected that it should be possible to optimize the route in three areas: the exit from Rio (up to the municipality of Duque de Caxias), Serra das Araras and Vale do Paraiba (specially in the vicinity of Taubaté).
In Halcrow's projections, the demand for the high speed train will reach 7 million passengers a year in the express service (Rio-São Paulo and Rio-Campinas), without intermediate stops. The regional services will have an initial demand of 25.5 million passengers/year. Curiously, the greatest flow will not be between the two biggest cities of the country, but in the connections between São Paulo and Campinas and São Paulo and São José dos Campos, whose movement should get to 20.6 million passengers/year. Japanese, Korean, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese groups have already showed interest in participating in the bidding.
The study made by Halcrow mentions billionaire figures to attract the future concessionaire - the forecast projects an annual income of nearly R$ 2.3 billion (US$ 1.2 billion) in 2014.