Three years to improve the quality of transport projects in Brazil
Passengers buy tickets for the TransOeste bus rapid transit (BRT) system at a bilheteria (ticket office) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
Guanabara Palace, the official address of State Governor Sergio Cabral, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the stage today of a meeting between the fifteen main institutions involved in urban transit in Brazil.
Jaime Lerner, EMBARQ Brasil, and SIBRT (the Latin-American Association of Integrated Systems and BRT) organized the meeting in partnership with the state government, represented by the Secretariat of Transports, Julio Lopes. The goal was to guarantee quality improvements for the mobility projects that will be developed in the next three years in Brazil, as well as to begin working together to promote excellence in public transit for all in Brazil.
Jaime Lerner is internationally known for his vision and accomplishments in urban sustainable development, including the implementation in Curitiba, Brazil of the first bus rapid transit (BRT) system within an integrated transport network. Lerner shares with EMBARQ and SIBRT the conviction that this is a special moment for Brazilian cities, with substantial offers of financial resources for urban mobility projects. Explained Lerner:
"Brazil has the technology, bus private companies, construction companies, a new mobility law and the financing, but we need to move forward in the urban setting, planning, supply and high quality operation of transport systems."
“The high investments in road infrastructure offered by the federal government to large and midsize cities bring unique opportunities for our industry, such as exclusive corridors for high capacity buses, promoting urban development guided by public transportation, providing a differentiated service offering quality bus services, introducing technological advances in vehicles and operation control systems”, adds Luis Antonio Lindau, president of EMBARQ Brasil.
“The BRT projects that are being developed in Brazil must achieve the highest levels of quality to effectively improve the quality of life and the competitiveness of cities. Because their implementation is very complex, it requires special attention by all the stakeholders involved in the projects (e.g. federal government, local authorities, private operators and financial institutions) to avoid unwished results,” remarks Luis Gutierrez, Latin America Strategic Director of EMBARQ and General Secretary of SIBRT.
