UK - BRAZIL URBAN NETWORK
Discussion paper for Workshop on 'Globalisation, Climate Change and
Urban Governance: Balancing the Scales for Both Efficient and Pro-Poor
Urban Futures – The Case of Brazil and the UK'.
Oxford 9-11 March 2011
Draft Copy – Do not quote
Structuring dynamics of São Paulo macrometropolis:
perspectives and strategies for rail infrastructure re-functioning
Authors: Silvana ZIONI, Gerardo SILVA, Silvia Helena PASSARELLI.
Summary
The objective is to discuss development strategies for São Paulo macrometropolis related to
the re-functioning processes of rail infrastructure. This study will focus on the railway systems
that connects some agglomeration and regions of this metropolis-region where the share
urban of freight services andis getting more important. In addition to playing an intrinsic and
strategic role insetting-up new patterns of mobility and logistics,regarding the re-organization
of macrometropolis, the re-functioning of railway infrastructure involves understanding the
potentialsof the properties related to the railroad; the prospects for multimodal transportation
in some areas of the macrometropolis, the potential logistics opportunities in the context of
production changes, committed to the urgency of changing the mobility patterns in the
macrometropolis.
Structuring dynamics of São Paulo macrometropolis: perspectives and
strategies for rail infrastructure re-functioning
Initial reflections on the territorial dynamics of São Paulometropolis
Nowadays, considering different institutional basis, new prospects for economic recovery,
diffusion of technical conditions of production and national communication networks require
that the issue of the intense polarization of São Paulo metropolitan areabe resumed by linking
itto planning and development themes.
1
'Influence Areas of Cities' (IBGE, 2007) research emphasizes the institutional and business
management flows and integrationflowsas central elements in the delineation of
relationshipbetween cities. According to those criteria, São Paulo and Brasília stand out as
main urban networkhubsin Brazil. However, São Paulo stands out as the single national
metropolis, congregating large companies,country `headquarter' and connected with all other
metropolises.
São Paulo Macrometropolis 11, as it is also called, is set-up as a complex and diverse urban–
regionalphenomenon that gathers agglomerations,urban centers and core regionsheavily
articulated, even though they are about 150 to 200 km distant. That is the main node of
networksand multi-scale processes, and territories which includes more than 23% of Brazil's
GDP and over 15% of the population (EMPLASA, 2007), which has the country´s densest road
and railway networks and has the busiest airports and ports in Brazil. However, the region with
the highest accessibility pattern in the country has inadequate transport systems and low
economic, social and environmental efficiency.
The economic changes occurred over the past three decades changed the activityprofile in São
Paulo metropolitan areasignificantly reducing the share of industrial labor, but still maintaining
its importance as an industrial center, concentrating almost half of all production of the State
of São Paulo. The industrial business strategies mainly indicate the emergence of new
processes of territorial organization in the metropolis, that "... the spreading of industrial
activity around the metropolitan area [that] .... sustained São Paulo´s position in the
hierarchy. ...territorially expanding ... "(LENCIONI, 2003, p. 467).
The spatial organization of economic activities in the São Paulo metropolis seems to be marked
mainly by two dilemmas: how to understand the industrial decentralization in São Paulo and
how to understand the increase in tertiary activities, defining a new service profile to the
industrial metropolis, since the metropolis is decentralizedwith the changing process
byterritorial expansion of thenetworkand integrated places to new strategies and production
technologies supported by services, information and knowledge. Thus, "... it territorially
extends itself by the Metropolizing areas "(ibid.). It is even more important considering that
those dilemmas are reflectedon the definition of metropolitan territory itself.
For many authors, such as Soja (2006), the metropolis is expanding as a city-region with new
patterns
and
new
economic
functions,
which,
delineating
thediffuse
urbanizationMacrometropolis, could be understood as other centers with metropolitan
characteristics located on SPMA´s vicinity, constituting an integrated metropolitan system. This
means it is comprised of three metropolitan areas formally institutionalized - São Paulo,
Baixada Santista and Campinas - as well as defined urban agglomeration- Jundiaí, Vale do
Paraiba and Sorocaba. This Macrometropolis is not only the largest urban concentration in
Brazil, it also expressed in the diversity of hubs that are part of its polarizing strength and its
1
The term São Paulo Macrometropolis refers to the set of metropolitan areas in Baixada Santista,
Campinas and surrounding urban agglomerates in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, whichsets up a regionmetropolis with over 25 million inhabitants. Check
http://www.emplasa.sp.gov.br/portalemplasa/EncontrosMetropolitanos/documentos/leitura.pdf. Accessed on
January 13, 2011.
2
complex. This polarization is inversely represented by its effective institutional power: there is
no political or administrative metropolitan policy, and therefore, there is a gap between the
planning and its development management (KLINK, 2011).
Figure 1. São Paulo Macrometropolis
Source: EMPLASA.
Production and organization changing dynamics of Metropolitan territory - not only the
changes related industry re-territorialization, but also changes related to innovations in trade
organization and service activities –they strongly request transportation infrastructure, which
are now catalysts of new production arrangements (SILVA, 2003, p.84). According to Silva and
Cocco (2008) new social and technical forms of organization of production are revealed by
logistics, which in a sense is presented as an agent of the metropolization process.
"Diversification, outsourcing and reticular spreading of productive processes define the
characteristicsof a circular flow economy, in which these time points (production and
distribution) become inseparable. Logistics, therefore, is concern to this junction, the
operation set of that connect the productive systems to a distribution network essentially an information and communication network. "(SILVA, COCCO, 2008, p.22)
3
Some logistical arrangements that reflect anspatial organization characterized by aggregation
and spatial agglomeration in oppositeto a functional specialization through the spatial
integration of workplace and spatial proximity of companies that are almost vertically
integrated despite occupying the same sites of the traditional industrial arrangements, were
identified on the metropolis (ZIONI, 2009).
The ABC area located in São Paulo metropolis, guided by the dynamic and globalized
automobile industry, could be the best example of these trends in the recent decades, a period
that had witnessed the intensification of new consumption demands and the expansion of
worldwide trades, which promoted changes in organizational business practices and the
creation of distribution and communication networks. The networks set-up, more open and
flexible, is defined by discontinue and non-aggregated territories, and are the nodes of the
network - more developed and complex infrastructures, multimodal- that stand out as places
of exceptional competitive advantages. That is, those features are commonly found in
metropolis wherethe organization of complex supply chains will occur easily and with lower
cost than in other locations (ZIONI, 2009).
"It is showedby the increasing concentration around major world metropolis, which is
increasingly operating as horizontal networks, mostly by agglomeration effects [...] and
thatfully express them, as long as the spatial limits to markets are reduced to the flow
of goods, people and ideas. Itis followedby a change of accessibility conditions, which is
the key that explains the external irradiation and internal efficiency of the metropolitan
areas. "(VELTZ, 2004, p. 57-58, free translation)
It is not hard to acknowledge São Paulo as the main hub of a large metropolitan region, where
intense networks and flows of goods, people, and information are articulated.
"The extended São Paulo metropolis, full of immaterial labor, therefore increasingly
concentrate, a space consisting by and for structured networks through information
and communications flows." (LENCIONI, 2003, p. 468).
However, it is necessary to understand these flows and relationships are sustained in the
current accessibility conditions, since the investments that have been made in recent decades
are not sufficient transmit anirradiating and structuring accessibility patterns suitable to
anational metropolis.
Instead, those investments that systematically favor the highway systems do not seem to
acknowledge the existing railway assets as a potential modifier of the accessibility conditions
of the metropolis-region, whose exploitation would give dynamism to the structure of
macrometropolitans territories. In this sense, a special opportunity is the lands along the axis
of the former Railroad Santos-Jundiaí that remain under the federal domain afterprivatization
of railways in Brazil. In our opinion, that territory, defined as a link between major hubs in the
region of São Paulo metropolis, is strategic for the set-up of new patterns of mobility and
logistics, and for the re-organization of Macrometropolis, and therefore, our main object of
study.
4
Macrometropolis development perspectives and the infrastructure role
Investments in infrastructure are one of the central issues of urban development policies, but
the scenario that has been defined since the 1970s to the Brazilian cities has not been the
most promising one.
Initiatives in the emerging metropolis were not enough to change the patterns of
precariousness that are present nowadays. The current 70 km extension of the subway is an
example of the minimal network that is responsible for less than 9% of daily commute in
SPMA. Neither policies that were released as strategies for coping with restricted budgets in
the 1980s and 1990s, which proposed more economical alternative systems - medium capacity
bus route - nor the use of railway infrastructure, reversing its obsolescence as freight transport
in high capacity systems for metropolitan passenger, became effective in scale and pace
consistent with the demands of the largest Brazilian metropolis.
The prospects of a neoliberal project to expand investments in key development areas energy, telecommunications and transport - were not enough to cover the last area, which had
a lot of opportunities on a metropolitan level. These promises, more than Public-Private
Partnerships experiences, are useful for reflection on the ability of public planning,
management and regulation on the metropolitan area.
The implementation of alternative networks and metropolitan transport projects certainly
would bring significant gains to mobility patterns of the metropolis, if definitely
accomplished. More than that, it could "also indicates that Brazilian society is finally ready for
a long range change in its historical pattern of development" (DEÁK, SCHIFFER, 2007).
Political-institutional advances, accomplished since the creation of the Ministry of Cities,
undoubtedly indicate important technical and financial prospects, but are still insufficient to
ensure the integration of urban, transport, housing and sanitation policies, or to face the
federal model dilemmas, especially if they are reflected on the macrometropolis context. This
may explained, according to Cocco (2007), by the fact that they derive from a socioeconomic
status milestone that does not assume the 'productive mobilization' in the city and for the city
to a new growth model (p.70).
"The real challenge is to learn the territorial dynamics as being social and productive at
the same time. That means we need to see in an integrated manner the development
of territories and mobilization of cities issues, without falling into the trap thatis to
maintain separate these two dimensions. Indeed, the division between cities and the
territories is today inadequate in two respects. At a general level, it prevents to learn
the forms of social and territorial integration through the dynamics of production and
distribution. The new content of the productive dimensions of territories and social
networks are, thus, ignored. Then, in a more specifically Brazilian level, the local
development policies can hardly face the challenges of short and medium term:
enormous population concentrated in cities that are - in large proportions - major
cities." (COCCO, 2007, p. 70-71)
5
In its turn, thinking about the territorial dynamics of São Paulo region-metropolis is not easy or
trivial, but it is certainly necessary when facing the increasing metropolitan flows to the
strategic and intrinsic role that the rail infrastructure could play in the structuring dynamics of
São Paulo macrometropolis.
New railroad features - new resources for Macrometropolis development
Implementation projects for a regional train among the metropolitan areas of São Paulo,
Campinas and Baixada Santista were recently (once again) announced by the government of
São Paulo state. The announced system has a design similar to the High Speed Trains, it is a
federal initiative, it will connect Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas, and however, it will
not overcome the Bullet train either in length or speed 2.
Scaled to cover the macro-metropolis radius, the ‘Paulista Regional Rail Systems’ must, with
average speeds between 120 and 150 km/h and travel between 45 and 50 minutes, connect
important centers of the macro-metropolis like Santos and Sorocaba. Even though it would be
less rapid than the HST, this project also represents a bigfeasibility challenge. The proposed
connection between the transport systems of the metropolitan city and the Metropolitan
Integrated System (SIM) from Santos, a Baixada Santista´s Light Rail Vehicle on implementation
phase, involves using part of a freight line, given the ALL (América Latina Logística). Since the
communication between Campinas and São José dos Campos is compromised with the
expected deployment of High Speed Train Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo – Campinas3.
The rail transportation systems, despite their environmental and performance benefits,
havenot been a priority on the Brazilian transportation matrix4. Whether in cities or for freight
transport, the growth of rail participation is goal sought for decades. In early 1990s,
institutional and financial measures marked a new era for the railroads in Brazil, with the
privatization of most federal freighttransportation network and the states becoming
responsible for the urban systems, which would allow a major change in the rail systems set
sin Brazilian capitals.
The rail system, hegemonic in the organization of pioneer urban and industrial complex, was
supplanted by roads since the mid-twentieth century. At São Paulo metropolitan
agglomeration, Estrada de Ferro Santos-Jundiaí was a powerful element on the development,
not only due to its performance characteristics and efficiency but also due to its strategic
2
Revistaferroviária http://www.revistaferroviaria.com.br
3
http://www.stm.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2217&Itemid=224
4
According to the Information System on Urban Mobility ANTP - National Association of Public Transport, The
population of the largest municipalities (those with more than 60 000 inhabitants) made in 2009, 58.0 billion trips,
which is about 190 million trips per day. The trips on foot and by bicycle were the majority (23.5 billion), followed by
individual motorized transport - cars and motorcycles (17.3 billion) and by public transport (17.0 billion). Of these 17
billion trips, the vast majority of local bus use, about 12 billion, the remaining, nearly 3 billion journeys are made by
bus metropolitan systems (inter) and just over 2 billion journeys are made only in rail systems - trains and subways
still rare in Brazilian cities. [http://portal1.antp.net/site/simob]
6
connection to port of Santos and to regions of agricultural production on State of São Paulo
countryside (SILVA, COCCO, 2008).
Thus, it had been structured a pioneer network of neighborhoods and urban agglomerationon
the metropolis under its influence. In the ABC region, the integration of the network to
territory constituted local identities and important productive complexes, establishing a
remarkable dialogue (PASSARELLI, 1994), although sometimes diachronic, partially as a result
of the scrap of railway infrastructure between 1960s-1980s. This period corresponds to the
time point when the highway system takes the major role as inducer of national development,
and the establishment of the current traffic system, which was related to the industrial
modernization of the region.
"The truck has adapted more quickly to new functional requirements of an industrial
production that demanded more flexibility, particularly with regards to efficiency and
effectiveness of transportation services that were being requested (e.g. Just-in-time,
door / door). In this sense, the productive restructuring gave freight transportation a
new boost, more pronounced this time than in the 50's and 60's."(SILVA, COCCO, 2008,
p.40).
As complemented by the authors, highlighting the potentials of the highway system structural flexibility - to "articulate the territory not only the marketing or distribution
networks, as well as the production networks in the processes of becoming part of the third
sector and outsourcing" (ibid., footnote reference 54), indicating that the systems are
complementary and interconnected networks that support the current production
processes. In terms of ways of transport it can be identified as intermodal or multimodal
systems.
This perspective maybe a milestone for rail transport systems development, in which: "In
intermodal or multimodal perspective, the restore and appreciation of railways appear as
something 'naturally' sustainable, leaving questions about the model management that could
ensure effective and competitive integration." (ibid., p.43).
This perspective seems to be present on Ministry of Transport projects (2007), by exploiting
the potential of integrating rails with highways and waterways, they would aim to reduce
logistical costs and increase operational efficiency of systems. As corollary, projects with major
impact on the metropolis are aligned, covering the implementing of regional trains in shared
operation with the existing and future freightlines. Integration projects would make feasible
the increase offreighttransport in the cities and eliminate routeconflicts andbottlenecks, also
benefiting the services to main ports, as well as strategic links between the simple transport
network on rails and the airports of the metropolis.
Besides these studies, studies about implementing High Speed Trains in Brazil consider
abackgroundof a network that would interconnect major urban centers development.Project
that since 1980 has been suggested, HST Brazil study start-up was 2007, starting with a system
of interconnecting the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas. This project
involves the Ministry of Transport, ANTT - National Agency for Land Transport and National
Economic and Social Development Bank - BNDES, for coordinating the technical studies, the
7
licitation process of granting the right to exploit rail passenger’s service of the high-speed
system.
Figure 2. High Speed Train Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo – Campinas Route
Source: Halcrow Report / Synergy (Volume 2 – Route Studies).
HST-Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo-Campinas project characterizes the central axis of what is
considered as Brazilian megalopolis (URANI, 2008). The axis formed by these cities and their
influence areas represent the largest concentration of flows in the country, where about 20%
of Brazilian population and 30% of domestic production are located, and have dysfunctionson
network connections and on modal segments that focus on air and road connections. This
project became part of the federal government's strategy for the acceleration of economic
growth (Halcrow Report / Synergy)5 because of the perspective of some modal saturation due
to the expected growth of economic activities.
As for HST Brazil, it is facing an optimistic growth scenario, with the resumption of investment
and production territorialization boostin other conditions; it is possible, in new terms, the refunctionalization of railway infrastructures on the São Paulo metropolis region.
For this purpose, it is possible to speculate about some of these conditions, seeking to
concomitantly understand how facing the urgent improvement challenge of the mobility
pattern in the macrometropolis it is possible to realize the potential logistics opportunities in
the context of production changes, without perpetuating the conflict of using railway
5
According to http://www.tavbrasil.gov.br/Tracado.asp.
8
infrastructure systems for both freight and passengers. This is the keynote of a research6 that
aimed to assess and measured the logistics opportunities at Santo André city, in the context of
the development strategies for Axis Tamanduatehy Project, but it can be extended along the
historic axis of Santos- Jundiai Railroad, asegment of the macro metropolization process of São
Paulo.
Moreover, an initial and challenging exercise is what is also suggested by the potential
recovery of railroad assets. Those assets have diversified use demands on the São Paulo
metropolitan area - whether for housing (social interests or not) as for logistics or installation
of business hubs and are the object of the research study 'Inventory and diagnosis of nonoperational assets of RFFSA-SPU on São Paulo´s cities network and asset management
guidelines7. Its goal is to formulate a model for managing federal lands, focusing on the nonoperating assets of the former Rede Ferroviária Federal S/A. To achieve its objectives, the
study is analyzing the characteristics of properties (land and buildings) that were part of the
railroad asset and identifying potential management of these assets in a matrix that involves
the characteristics of municipalities and local and regional development guidelines.
Particularly with regard to São Paulo Metropolitan Area, it is observed a lot of interests on the
area, whether regarding to transportation - passenger and freight, which includes
modernization and construction of new lines - or regarding real estate interests, with the
construction areas for residential, commercial or services, or even the interest of groups
related to the expansion of land supplies for social housing in downtown areas, which are
better served with infrastructure and joboffers.
However, this subject is subjacent to issues of shared use of railway systems and the prospects
for multi-modal transport, either for freight or passengers, that is unusual for São Paulo´s
reality8, but that is promising especially when targeting certain sectors of the
macrometropolis, such as the ABC or the city of Santos. To reinforce this idea, it presents a
brief review of how those issues are being considered and addressed, discussing the centrality
of re-functioning railway infrastructuresas a strategy to transform the mobility pattern in
Macrometropolis.
Railroad de-functionalization in the metropolis
In the 30´s, after the Avenues Plan9 proposed the removal of the railroads along Pinheiros and
Tietê rivers´ bank, thus acknowledging their primary roles - supply system and freight
distribution in the city, it took decades until the subject is reconsidered.
6
SILVA, G., COCCO, G. (2006) Do urbanismo aos territórios da logística. Relatório Final. Rio de Janeiro: LABTec/UFRJ
– Instituto ACQUA.
7
Coordinated by Professor Dr. Luiz Antonio Nigro (UFSCar), the research is conducted in collaboration with other
state universities from São Paulo State, including UFABC, andSão Paulo´s office of the Federal
Superintendent of Heritage (SPU), supported by FAPESP (process #07/55262-09).
8
In this sense, it emphasizes the importance of seeking international experiences of re-functionality of railway
infrastructures.
9
São Paulo´s urban plan.
9
Considering that the freight flow is a necessary evil. Freight flowin the city, vital to the direct
supply of the population and the development of productive activities, started to require more
roads, and even if the roads were integrated to rail modules, the demand also city road
infrastructure, aggravating even more the urban commute conditions.
Figure 3. Railway network in São Paulo Macrometropolis
Source: MEYER, Grostein, Biderman (2004).
In the most fruitful period for São Paulo metropolitan transport policy, between the 1970´s
and 1980´s, when had happened subway start-up and the idea of modernization of the
passenger rail systems, the issue of freight flow was treated as an obstacle to modify the
accessibility pattern of the metropolis. After all, the freights traffic competes for the same
circulation spots that passengers transport. And, despite its advantages regarding the
environment and the benefits to the community, it was given the role of a source of conflict.
It is necessary to highlight that the rail system development impulse on the SPMA had a
significant incentive for road transport as a correspondent, either by the implantation of
highways, as by elimination of the remaining tramways lines from the streets, a system with
about 300 km that used to structure the area that is now acknowledge as the center of the
metropolis.
10
The 90´s National Privatization Plan (Law No. 8031 of 1990)10 marks the final round of public
investments in the management of rail transport in Brazil. The railroads in the mid-twentieth
century, had become the Federal Rail Network - REFFSA and the FEPASA – Paulista Railroad SA,
and were responsible for the 'suburban' transportation systems, they mark São Paulo´s
organization and expansion of the industrial working class neighborhoods and urban centers
that punctuate the axis expansion of the metropolis. The privatization process of railroads
organized this matrix in 4 or 5 lanes of freight transport11, converging at the metropolis and at
port of Santos that coexists with the passenger train system operated by CPTM - Companhia
Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos.
When, following the new constitutional principles, the transfer of passenger rail systems from
(CBTU - Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos) to the states had happened, the idea of
formation of a metropolitan transport company, incorporating all mass road rail systems, was
discontinued. CPTM incorporated CBTU and FEPASA systems, but inheritedthe weight of the
shared use of freight system infrastructure that was being privatized. The disjunction of these
two processes – at one hand, privatization and formation of a metropolitan rail transport
company - reflects how the transport policy of São Paulo metropolis did not actually take
possession in a proper manner of the railroad assets, wasting an opportunity to structurally
transform the infrastructure of the metropolis. To that end, relocates to this question, but in
order to Macrometropolis under a development perspective.
The bordering property estate, however, would remain under federal government domain,
becoming the frontier of metropolitan system and freights system operations. And so,
the railroad territory in the metropolis became anodd neighborhood.
A missed opportunity
The possibility of this transformation was promoted in only a transportation plan which, at the
end of the 20th century and begging of the 21th century, presented a proposal for integrated
management of transport systems in the SPMA. The Integrated Plan of Urban Transport - PITU
proposed for 2020, a transport policy that would responded to metropolitan development in
terms of improving its economic, environmental and social performances. According to the
plan, proposals for investments in new infrastructure systems and the exploitation of existing
resources would be combined to pricing strategies of public transport and the urban
management in order to give sustainability to the infrastructure funding.
Unprecedently, PITU presented alternatives to rail networks, which would integrate the
subway and suburban rail networks by combining different technologies and expanding them
beyond the limits of São Paulo city. The plan background was, first, the idea of a functionally
denser network: In addition to the subway and the metropolitan train, rail systems were
proposed - regional and approximator - which would reach the surrounding metropolitan
10
The program of railway concessions to private companies, following guidelines of the National Privatization
Program (Law No. 8031 of 1990), transferred the 22,000 km of REFFSA, therefore, 73% of the national rail
network for 12 utility companies.
11
These corridors are operated by concessionaires ALL - América Latina Logística, MRS Logistica, Ferroban - Ferrovia
Bandeirantes.
11
areas. For this purpose, the railroad would go under not only operational adjustments, but
would also have to be reformed and would have functional expansions and
modernizations. These alternatives also propose changes of some railroad tracks, as the by
Brás - São Caetano – Santo André axis, transformed into a high capacity and performance
system comparable to the subway.
Figure 4. PITU 2020 Scenarios / SPMA: regional and approximator Train.
Source: STM.
The network designed was assessed as the one with the best performance regarding economic
and environmental efficiency, and the one that fulfilled the accessibility and quality of service
criteria, enhancing the performance of all infrastructure investments12. However, even
recognizedby technics and academics as a consistent politics instrument, PITU failed to be able
12
http://www.stm.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2215&Itemid=223
12
to effectively set deadlines and nor even defined theinvestments so far. The integration of rail
systems on the SPMA and its surroundings is still more theoretical than practical.
Recovered freight
Established, historically, as regional and local networks, even across large distances articulated
to the exporting ports, the national rail network was over time having difficulties to implement
and integrate large urban centers. The safe, economical and less polluter, especially for large
volumes and long distances, freight transportation, is still responsible for the transport of 24%
of domestic production13, keeping its important role, especially in promoting productive spatial
circuits of commodities and structuring export corridors. Among them, those who remain
[embedded] on São Paulo macrometropolitan area, sharing, or rather, competing for the
pioneer pathways, tracks and rail infrastructure, in part adapted to accommodate passenger
transport systems.
In SPMA´s case, REFESA and Fepasa´s network has been exploited to passenger transport,
keeping the combined (and problematic) operation with freight services and a relationship not
always well defined with the subway system 14.. Over the past two decades, little advances in
establishing a structural network for rail transport on RMSP were made, although the lines of
Metro Co. and CPTM 15 are showed in the same maps for public guidance, there is not a full
integration in the services pricing and the operational differences are many.
Moreover, it also exemplifies the weakness of the political attention received by the transport
networks on SPMA and as the railway dysfunctions are reflected, East-West Subway Line,
which the implementation parallel to railroad tracks caused a complex territory-network that
reinforces the existence of fractures on the metropolitan region´s network. It can also be
observed in other agglomerations and metropolitan regions of São Paulo, where some railroad
tracks were discontinued, transforming stations in museums and cultural centers, and railroad
in avenues, many technical, lines, branches and real estate assets are still idle and wasted.
The São Paulo Railroad Ring
A railroad ring project that encircles the metropolis in order to eliminate interferences and
bottlenecks in the railway network has a long history, beginning with some public investments
made since the 1970s, but that had new players after start of the privatization process. The
first track of the Railroad Ring, built almost four decades ago, connecting the east and
southeast arms (between the stations of Suzano and Rio Grande da Serra), aimed to deflect
from central part of the city the iron ore flows, proceeding from Vale do Paraíba, designed to
serve Companhia Siderúrgica Paulista (Cosipa), in the Baixada Santista. A second track of the
13
Since the privatization, when an increase of investment and some intermodal resources,
the volumes transported by rail has doubled in SPMA. ANTT (2007) foundthat in 1992 the volume of transport in the
SPMA and Brazil were respectively51.2 and 116.1 million useful tons, while in 2005 the volumes carried
by rail reached110.4 and 221.6 useful Mt.www.antt.gov.br/concesSãofer/EvolucaoFerroviaria20070205.pdf.
14 The issue of integration between theSubway and the Metropolitan Train has a specialchapter in
the history and design of subway networks in the SPMA, whose analysis requests more attention and space, not
available here.
15 In addition to bus corridors and EMTU - Empresa Metropolitana de Transportes Urbanos services, responsible for bus services.
13
Railroad Ring, implemented between the west and southwest arms (connecting Mairinque and
Evangelista de Souza) was an alternative access to Port of Santos from the region of Sorocaba,
and it was a FEPASA initiative.
Completion of the project, feasible by the construction of the northern and southern parts of
São Paulo Railroad Ring, was included in the Growth Acceleration Program - PAC 1 16,
allowing a final segregation of freight and passenger lines on the metropolitan area of São
Paulo, favoring the performance of passengers and freight systems, favoring the overcome of
bottlenecks and gaps in the network. But even with its initiative shared by the National
Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), the National Agency for Land Transport
(ANTT) and MRS Logística SA, a freightrail concessionaire that operates in SPMA, the Railroad
Ring project has not been effectively resumed so far.
Railroad Ring direct benefits are expected not only in SPMA nor to enhancing the efficiency of
freight transportation. While the Railroad Ring eliminates the conflict of sharing infrastructure
between passengers and freight systems, the central-eastern São Paulo State is favored, since
the ring would facilitate the freight flow to the ports of Santos and Itaguaí. There is however, a
geopolitical struggle between the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro about the fate of
these port charges.
Figure 4. São Paulo Railroad Ring scheme
Source: sekelsenmat [www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=871856]
16
PAC is
Federal
Government
program that
covers a range of
economic, institutional andprioritize investments in infrastructure and social development, and it included
in its first version the completion of São Paulo Railroad ring during the period from 2007 to 2010.
14
15
However, implementation of the Railroad Ring project is sometimes questioned due to the
model of regulation and concession of the rail industry, which after more than a decade in
operation, did not assured the "increasing ofperformance of the railways that cross the
Brazilian economic hub, neither the practice of affordable tariffs or gains for the production
chains that benefits from the rail "17. In other words, it is possible to think that there is still a
potential for business expansion associated with freight transportation corridors that compete
to the Macrometropolis. A similarly bet that a very positive development and improvement of
metropolitan train services, beyond the possibilities of integration with the subway system and
its current condition is still subordinated to the sharing of infrastructure with the freight
system18.
After all, we must admit that even in non-ideal operating conditions, the daily transportation
of passengers on CPTM lines increased from 800 000 (1992), when the company was created,
to current 2.1 million passengers in about 260 km of lines (2010) 19.
Territories to be conquered
Along the railroad, located in the Macrometropolis areas, it is noticed some changes related to
economic dynamics industry, commerce and service activities in current forms of production
and territorial organization.
With different arrangements, those activities also require transportation infrastructure, so in
addition to traditional industrial ground plansalong the rail routes most centrally locatedin the
metropolis, services and trade equipment have been installed, further the adequacy of the old
yards and warehouses to new demands of logistics services and freight transportation. Much
of the bordering railroads land have little use so far, characterizing what is conventionally
called the rail edge due to itsidle. However, there are already indications that the dynamics of
occupation and exploitation can occur as occurred on the Tamanduatey Axis Project, in Santo
André.
Reduction of freight train operations (shunting and circulation of locomotives and wagons)
made possible the elimination of intermediate yards and the transfer ofdistribution and
storage terminals to more remote and less dense areas of the network. It was noticed that two
strategies that have been practiced. On the one hand, the effective emptying of the railway
bordering land, with the vacating of yards, warehouses and lands used for otherpurpose, on
the other hand, the increase in intermodal freight transportation, especially in regions of
intersection of road and rail networks that converge in the metropolis; however, it occurs even
in the cases of integration with systems for passenger transport.
As examples for the arrangements that were practiced we have the deactivation of the Barra
Funda and Engenheiro São Paulo justified bythe implementing of the subway system and the
17
Valor Econômico, March 17th , 2008.
Passenger transport system-with train intervalsup to 3 minutes - the system stops at stations, the characteristics
of the undercarriage and the operation time, has a different performance from the freight system. With a
greater tonnage per axle and larger compositions, the passagefreight transportation or supply, which operates in
the SPMA in restricted times - at dawn and in allowed periods during the day, request use of logistical
resources and the use of areas bordering lands..
19
http://www.cptm.sp.gov.br/e_companhia/gerais.asp
18
16
Intermodal Barra Funda Terminal, and the underuse of the large and central Pari´syard, where
the unprepared occupation is responsible for the attendance of specialized demands of the
commercial areas of center metropolis (the informal food market, informal sales person,
etc.). Meanwhile, other bordering areas are being heavily used for logistics activities; designed
for urban supply, such as the land along the Água Branca Station and Bresser or Belém yards
(ZIONI, 2009, p.131).
This shows that, although some plans for railway border exploitation of the the rail edgehad
already been part ofthe master plans of metropolitan municipalities, the key to change of
accessibility conditions, beginning with the railway infrastructures, has not been effective as a
metropolitan project. The strategy for metropolitan transport and logistics development is still
very fragile for São Paulo´s metropolitan areas, territories that constitute the main country
productive centers and corridors of exportation, though officially mentioned in São Paulo´s
plans for transportation development.
Figure 5. Logistics Strategy of PDDT Live from 2000 to 2020.
Source: SET, 2000.
The PDDT - Development Master Plan for Transport (PDDT Live 2000-2020), is a study made a
decade ago and ithad already considered some trends induced by transformationsin the
production structure process and the freight flow patterns and the flows concentrated in the
macrometropolitan area, warning that this trends would imply a greater infrastructure and
transport services supply. This scenario of growth of intra-metropolitan flows, that reinforces
the importance of intermodal and complete implementation of the beltway and Railroad Ring,
and integrated logistics centers, defined the intermodal logistics strategic framework of the
State of São Paulo, which had São Paulo Metropolitan Area as the epicenter, and aperspective
17
of effective it in short terms, as well as it had the perspective of completion of the beltway in
2005 (ZIONI, 2009, p. 123-124).
However, the implementation of any of the mentioned guidelines was not accomplished,
although other projects have also been elaborated foresawthe use of railroad assets. This is
the case of LRV – Baixada Santista´s Light Rail Vehicle, with that part of the existing rail
infrastructure, it aims to reconnect territories of the Port of Santos to the sub-centers and
metropolitan municipalities, or the ABC's Light Rail Vehicle, which would be connected to the
traditional Railway Santos-Jundiaí axis and would extend toward São Bernardo do Campo. In
other words, a great effort is necessary to reverse the dysfunctional scenario between sectors
and infrastructure of transport, initiating a new stage of functionalization of the railroad tightly
connected to the development of the São Paulo metropolitan area dynamics.
Exploring the re-functioning railway infrastructuret - conclusions and research
perspectives
Operational restructuring of São Paulo´s railway network can be considered a subject still
unexploredin a developmental perspective, despite the ‘spectacular’ institutional release,
since it is not only an issue of investments in high capacity transport systems as well as a
planning and development prospects for the region of São Paulo city, has played a secondary
role in metropolitan government in recent decades, correlated to the activity patterns of the
metropolitan administrative structure that has been weak and fragmented (Deak, Schiffer,
2007, p.30).
During the process of privatization of the railway, the logistics role and freight transportation
on the metropolis scope was not acknowledgedas important or strategic, even when a new
metropolitan transport company – CPTM – was started. The management of transport systems
in the SPMA only reinforced a low investment policy, supported by lower cost alternatives.
Railway systems exploitation policy, so far a very poor and outdated policy, tried to recover
the operational capacity at a very inferior level than what the metropolis require without
effectively exploit the locational advantages of this infrastructure, its large potential in
integrating multimodals to urban transport and without breaking the institutional limits of the
SPMA, which reinforces in core of the city the highest concentration of the few transport
resources.
This strategy, dysfunctional in relation to deficits in transport infrastructure for the size of the
SPMA, is even more unacceptable when you take in consideration the configuration of São
Paulo´s Macrometropolis, where not only a new functional place emerges, with new internal
and external hubs, as the central metropolis requires connections in different pace and sizes.
Furthermore, it is mainly due to indicators that foresee that the expansion of rail systems may
be feasible among the main cities in southeastern Brazil comprising several exportation
corridors and urban development axis converging in São Paulo in a middle terms, it is
18
necessary to study the rail infrastructure and the possibility of recovering part of its role as a
dynamic element of the expanded territory of the metropolitan area.
The subject of re-functioning the railway infrastructure of São Paulo metropolis - that overlaps
the existing networks of the subway and the Metropolitan Train to the few projects considered
such as monorail, LRV, HST and Railroad Ring - will require the immediate thought of a special
territorial approach (although sometimes implied) - a macrometropolitan flow network - as the
main matrix of new territorial arrangements that the region-metropolis requires. About this
territory-network, it will be important, first, outline scenarios and contexts of restructuring,
with special projection in the metropolis, and second, acknowledge the new functional
demands of the railroad, including the Macrometropolis.
Thus, a preliminary research schedule would include first of all includes the milestones of
public policies on transport - freight and passenger - observed at federal, state and local
spheres, and secondly, a systematic evaluation of plans and transportation projects, especially
on the ones about rails, that has suggested prospects of the restructuring process and dynamic
metropolis. The acknowledge of new functional requirements for railroad would, initially,
identify processes that may be more or less spread in the region and that would indicate that
the metropolis on the one hand ongoing business and logistics arrangements in the
metropolis, and on the other hand, daily commute strategies, with scales and modes as diverse
as the traffic of private cars and trucks, charter services, courier routes or helicopters
routes. In the end, it is necessary to question whether the setup of the logistic and mobility
territories - through established flows between metropolitan centers and hubs - can use the
potential multimodality of the rail system, ensuring a better mobility patternand further
boosting spreading power of the Macrometropolis.
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