Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires, 06/28/2012
Federal transportation regulator ANTT estimates that 5,000 kilometers of the 28,000 kilometers that were handed over to private operators in the 1990s aren’t being used commercially by the concession owners and are in a state of disrepair, despite demand from sugar and ethanol producers to use those lines, Valor Economico said, citing the ANTT’s Marcus Expedito Felipe de Almeida, manager of railway cargo transport.
As part of rule changes to increase competition, the government wants to force railway operators to allow other companies to use their railways in exchange for user fees. Railways can currently block rivals from using their network, even if the stretch of railway in question isn’t used by the concession owner.
The ANTT will require the companies to renovate the abandoned rail lines or return them to the government after paying a fee that is about equal to the cost of renovations, Valor said.
