Geosul (Jan 2005)
Transporte ferroviário no Brasil: da reestruturação da década de 1990 às parcerias público-privadas
Abstract
In the last decades, Geography gained a great deal of knowledge in some areas and, at the same time, discarded others. Studies about transportation used to be highly appraised in the past, but now, they seem to be disregarded. However, this paper intends to reappraise the “Transportation Geography”. The construction and development of Brazilian railroads were influenced by the worldwide economic cycles, by the substitution of imported goods by national ones and by the power pacts signed on a contract basis along the Brazilian history. At first, those groups involved in the power pacts decided to construct railroads and, after the 1930’s, they decided to build roads. The consequence was the stagnation and decline of the railway sector. In the 1990’s, railways were conceded to the private sector. Some public services were privatized or merged with private companies, thus producing monopolies. Due to those facts, we suggest a new model of concession grants and investments in public services. It is worth saying that President Lula and his party members have a proposal of concession grants and investments in debate, that is to say, public-private partnerships.
