Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Dircetor-General of UIC, and Guilherme Quintella, Chairman of the UIC Latin American Region, met the UIC Brazilian members last week and held a series of meetings and discussions with the Brazilian transport authorities.

In particular, a discussion with the Minister of Transport and Secretary of State of Transport, and also with the ANTT (Brazil’s National Agency for Land Transport) and the EPL (National Planning and Logistics Agency), described in more detail the vision for rail development that had already been presented by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff when she attended the UIC General Assembly last December in Paris.

This plan of 11,000 km of new lines and the renovation of existing lines to sustain the freight and passenger need for mobility in Brazil’s growing economy is very ambitious and needs to be staged step by step with a clear vision for its implementation.

In this respect, UIC’s experience and expertise were very much appreciated and it is most likely that UIC will be participating in November in the “Negocios de trios” meetings with a specific focus on interoperability and open access, and at the beginning of 2014 will probably organise a major workshop on railway issues transversally to bring the experience of UIC members to Brazil’s authorities.