How Brazil should face the new public transport scenario

Brazil’s rail passenger transport sector will have to rethink business as commuter numbers have been falling from 11 million per day before the pandemic to 8.3mn currently.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, we thought that the sector would recover its total demand of passengers within a year, but this never materialized and it is difficult to really predict when this recovery will actually happen because the scenario has changed," Joubert Flores, president of passenger transport association ANPTrilhos, told BNamericas.

“Now we have companies that have adopted the four-day work week, we have remote work, hybrid work, distance education, e-commerce. In other words, we have a scenario that forces us to think of ways to attract new passengers to the system and, at the same time, discourage individual transportation,” he added.

Flores recommended states subsidize urban transport fares, "even when there is low demand for passengers because this is, above all, a social work. During the pandemic, we realized that what helped move workers from various emergency services was the continuity of the public transport system," said Flores. 

Transport projects and concessions are advancing, mainly in São Paulo state, despite falling passenger numbers.

"New projects in Brazil are important because with this we are attacking part of the problem, which is attracting new passengers, from regions previously not served by the system," said Flores.

He highlighted that contractual improvements tend to attract private sector companies.

"In the old contracts in the sector in Brazil, all demand risk was with the operator. Now we no longer have this problem. The new contracts currently have shared risk, if demand drops a lot the state assumes part of that but even with lines where the passenger level is much higher than originally projected, the operator returns part of the gains to the government, creating an economically sustainable model," said Flores.

"This is the model that is viable in Brazil because unlike other countries in the world, Brazilian states, due to persistent fiscal challenges, need help from the private sector to move forward with projects in the segment," he added.