Brazil has to increase its transport infrastructure, not just rail, but highways, waterways, ports and airports, to make the country leverage and grow, highlighted Vicente Abate, president of the Brazilian Railway Industry Association (Abifer), who was at the 2017 Railway Engineering Symposium held this Thursday (11) in the New York auditorium of the Casa do Professorante da Unicamp.
The event, with 77 participants, was organized by the Vehicle-Road Interaction Laboratory (Labvia) of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FEM), by the Federal University of Espírito Santo and the Federal Institute of São Paulo. Professor Antonio Carlos Bannwart was present at the opening table, director of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FEM); the teacher Alberto Luiz Francato, associate director of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism (FEC), and FEC professor Carlos Alberto Bandeira Guimarães, who works in the area of Transport Engineering. FEM professor Auteliano Santos, one of the event organizers, led the work.
According to Vicente Abate, although the symposium is the first in this series that addresses rail freight transport, Unicamp has held other events in the past addressing rail topics. “It is urgent, so that we can develop the railway sector, equipment and cutting-edge technology. Industries, including those associated with Abifer, have sought to implement this application and, in doing so, have encouraged the growth of rail freight and passenger transport,” he said.
In his opinion, the bottleneck in the rail transport sector is the issue of lines. “It is necessary to modernize the railway lines, the permanent roads, and expand them. Today we only have 30 thousand kilometers of freight railways and, of these 30 thousand kilometers, a good part is not used. In terms of passengers, there are only a thousand kilometers in the whole of Brazil, and only in the urban part”, he informed.
“We need medium and long-distance regional trains. To this end, the government of São Paulo should launch this year a notice for trains between cities that will leave São Paulo and come to Americana, passing through Campinas, including Viracopos International Airport. The measure aims to revive rail passenger transport on rails based on this project that calls trains between cities”, said the president of Abifer.
Divestment
Vicente Abate recalled that, from the 1960s onwards, rail transport historically began to receive less investment in the country. In the 1980s, many industries were lost. "It was the lost decade of Brazil and the railway sector", he said. In the following decade, it began its recovery with the privatization of the cargo system. “We started to have private companies that made investments mainly from the year 2000 onwards. With this, we managed to revive the industry, in the cargo area”, he said.
In the passenger area, a movement began in 2006-2007, when the São Paulo government invested in the subway, in the Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM) itself. Today four and a half million people use the subway a day and three million use the CPTM. The idea is for this to be extended to the entire country.
The president of Abifer commented that the country has always dealt with limitations in public transport. Today, he recalled, it is possible to have mainly bus lines with BRTs (bus rapid transit), lines that can make people reach the main line. “We have better structured transport and it tends to improve.”
The expectation is that, with investments in the subway line by 2020, it will double in size. "We currently have 80 kilometers and another 80 under construction. So we will have a much better network combined with buses. We have always advocated the importance of integration between transport. But it is not just one mode of transport that will solve the country's problems. We have to have integration between all modes of transport, whether freight or passenger”, he highlighted.
Transport
Professor Auteliano Santos explained that the backdrop of the Railway Engineering Symposium brings a new approach that is being used by railway companies – that of investing in joint research to solve real problems. “It involves investing resources in scholarships, research sponsorship and research and development (R&D) plans. This is already happening,” according to him.
Currently, there are two large projects being developed at FEM, worth R$2 million. “The staff at OK It has also financed projects at other universities, such as USP, the Federal University of Espírito Santo, the Federal University of Maranhão. They have provided important support for research and have found several researchers interested in this work”, he revealed.
The objective of the event is to publicize funding opportunities for teachers and publicize the research that is already being carried out in the various research institutes by the company Vale. It is aimed at professionals who work in railway companies, postgraduate students linked to Vale projects and professionals and researchers who work with research in railway companies. “This symposium specifically deals with rail freight transport and is aimed at companies that work with freight transport and research in this area. We intend to hold other symposiums, but this time focused on passenger transport”, he announced.
For the director of FEM, Antonio Carlos Bannwart, the topic of railway research is vital for the State, the country and the university, as it trains people who will work in the industrial sector. "Students need to engage with national themes, and the symposium proposal includes a discussion between academia and the industrial sector. My research, for example, is in the area of energy. And I see here a great effort and a fundamental contribution that the railway area can provide by rationalizing the transport system", he stated.
Denile Boer, from the executive management of technology and innovation at Vale and a former Unicamp student, gave the first lecture of the day. She presented what Vale's innovation area is and what research options this company has supported in recent years. Vale is a mining company that is present on five continents. It is a world leader in the production of iron ore and also produces coal, fertilizers, manganese, iron, alloys and by-products such as gold, silver, cobalt and platinum. It also invests in logistics, steel and energy.
