Decades of mismanagement and under investment have left Brazil’s freight rail network creaking and often disused, squandering the potential economic benefits for a country focused on exports. What has led to this situation, and how can the Brazilian Government dig its way out of an infrastructure crisis?

几十年来，由于经营不善以及各种投资使得巴西铁路网运营步履维艰还时常被弃用。这种情况浪费一个专注于出口国家的潜在经济利益。是什么导致了这种情况，巴西政府如何摆脱这种基础设施危机？

Brazilian railways The village of Paranapiacaba plays host to a railway ghost.

巴西铁路：巴拉纳比亚卡巴村拥有铁路幽灵。

Credit: Diego Torres Silvestre迭戈.托雷斯.西尔维斯特报道

Nestled amid the Serra do Mar coastal forests in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, the village of Paranapiacaba plays host to a railway ghost. The village was built in the mid-19th century as a company town by British-owned São Paulo Railway Company, serving as a rail station and accommodation hub for workers on the railway, which was primarily used to carry coffee from the interior to the seaport at Santos.

巴拉纳比亚卡巴村拥有铁路幽灵。该村位于巴西圣保罗首府的萨拉杜（Serra do Mar）海岸森。该村建于19世纪中期，是英国所有的圣保罗公司的企业城镇，它既是火车站也是铁路工人居住中心。该地主要是将巴西国内的咖啡豆运往桑托斯海港。

Having been made obsolete by new technology and sent into decline through the 20th century, the Paranapiacaba rail station today lies in ruins, an eerily decayed site of historical interest. Both in its current ruined form and its Victorian heyday – when it was considered a feat of engineering for zig-zagging across steep jungle slopes – the São Paulo Railway draws interesting comparisons with Brazil’s modern-day rail freight system, which, despite billions in investment and decades of development, is still struggling to deliver the economic benefits it promises, and in some places approaches Paranapiacaba in its neglect and disuse.

由于新技术的发展，巴拉纳比亚卡巴车站在20世纪已经淘汰了，至今仍处于废墟之中，已经是历史悠久的腐朽遗址。无论是出于其当前的废墟状态还是维多利亚全盛时期—人们认为这是穿越陡峭丛林的蜿蜒曲折道路工程上的一个壮举—圣保罗铁路与巴西现代铁路运输系统进行了有趣的对比，尽管巴西政府在巴西铁路运输系统投资了数十亿，其历经几十年的发展，但其仍在努力给国家带来经济利益，靠近巴拉纳比亚卡巴的许多地方已经废弃。

Given Brazil’s sheer size – at around 8.5 million square kilometres it is the world’s fifth-largest nation, just behind China – the potential benefits of a reliable, well-implemented rail cargo network have been clear for decades. But for years, project mismanagement has held back the development of a network that properly serves Brazilian businesses, creating a legacy that has seen railways sidelined among the country’s transport infrastructure, with an over-reliance on roads to keep freight moving.

由于巴西国土面积—大约850万平方公里是世界第五大国家，仅次于中国—几十年来，铁路货运网络表现出可靠及良好运营的潜在好处已经很明显。然而，几年来，管理不善阻碍了服务于巴西商业的铁路网发展，同时由于过度依赖公路运输，铁路在巴西交通基础设施中的衰落使铁路成为了国家遗留的一个问题。

Source: https://www.railway-technology.com/features/brazilian-railways-infrastructure/

翻译：牛苗苗

RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY