MRS receives license for line in SP
Valor Econômico
MRS Logística received this week the environmental and installation licenses of the Ibama (Brazilian Institute for Environment and Natural Renewable Resources) for the works of segregation of the rail line in the metropolitan region of São Paulo in the section between the Manoel Feio and Suzano stations, 12 km long. This section crosses the municipalities of Itaquaquecetuba, Poá and Suzano. With that, as found out by Valor, the company plans to start the works of segregation of the lines in March. They should last from 15 to 18 months. The project, which is interconnected to another of the company, of descent of trains in the ridge of Santos (known as the Rack - Cremalheira, in Portuguese), will receive an investment of more than R$ 100 million (US$ 58.8 million). With the Rack project - basically in the purchase of special locomotives to operate on the path - the company will invest R$ 260 million (US$ 152.9 million).
The segregation of the rail between Manoel Feio and Suzano creates a unique line for the carriage of cargo on the rails that are currently used concomitantly with the CPTM (São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company) for passenger transportation. With the segregation, MRS gets rid of bottlenecks in the access to the descent of the Sea Ridge (Serra do Mar) for all cargo coming from the region of Vale do Paraíba and it gains more speed in its transport, currently restricted to a special schedule. With the Rack, in which there will be an exchange of locomotives from the 1970s for new ones and the construction of two crossing yards on the ridge, it will be able to increase the carriage capacity from the current 7 million up to 28 million tons of cargo in each direction. Other benefits pointed by the works are the removal of nearly 2 thousand trucks off the metropolitan region of the capital and hundreds of others every day off the roads that go down towards Santos.