The leadership of the Associacao Nacional de Transportes Publicos (ANTP), the Brazilian
counterpart of APTA, invited APTA to send an official representative to the biennial
Brazilian Public Transportation Conference and international transit exposition in Recife
last month. The choice fell to John Inglish, who is fluent in Portuguese. Here is his
report. The ANTP management team intends to take part, as well, in the APTA Annual Meeting
this October in Orlando, in the common effort to forge new personal links between the two
associations in an ongoing exchange that is certain to improve mutual understanding and to
benefit members.
By John M. Inglish
General Manager
Utah Transit Authority
Salt Lake City, Utah
Brazil is an exotic country of contradictions. While approximately equal to the size of
the continental United States, 60 percent of Brazil's 160 million population crowd into
only 16 percent of the country's geographic area, an area only slightly smaller than the
state of Alaska. So, while Brazil has enormous space, heavy urban congestion exists in its
five major metropolitan areas.
Although the middle class has been growing slowly over the last few years, a huge
disparity still exists between upper and lower classes, though Brazil is a country rich in
natural resources.
The economy is slowly improving. The political climate is stabilized. A constitutional
democracy has existed peacefully since the mid-80s, following 20 years of military rule.
Though inflation is now under control, the country has a severe 20 percent unemployment
problem.
Throughout its history, and to this day, public transit has been the major means of
transportation. Some of the larger cities, such as Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo,
have built rail subway systems, but the primary mode of transportation is still the bus.
Today, public transit in Brazil is largely privatized. Primary regulatory control of
public transit rests with the cities. Private companies acquire operating rights in open
competition to provide service in a specific area of the city following strict guidelines
set by the city. The city typically provides all planning of routes and schedules,
advertising, customer information, setting of fares, on-time performance, and definition
and monitoring of operation.
A tax on the farebox, typically 5 percent, is paid back to the city to cover these
overhead charges. The various systems operating in a city also pool their revenues to some
extent to compensate for those with less lucrative routes. Private operators receive only
the farebox revenues, no funding for equipment, facilities, operating expenses, or other
expenses. Virtually no funding is provided from any level of the government in Brazil.
Bus operations in Brazil are quite labor intensive. It is not uncommon to have six
employees per fleet vehicle in the typical Brazilian bus operation. Street operation is
essentially accomplished by two people. Passengers board through the rear door, pay their
fare to a fare collector, and pass through a turnstile on board the bus. They exit at
their destination via the front door. Most of the seats are in the front of the bus.
Buses stop on demand, which often is indicated by an outstretched hand of a potential
passenger standing on a street corner. Bus stops are identified in city centers.
The equipment is solid standard transmission heavy duty buses that are slightly smaller
than the typical U.S. bus. Buses are manufactured in Brazil by Mercedes Benz or Marco Polo
or one of the several other bus manufacturers. Some significant experimentation has taken
place with compressed natural gas vehicles.
A typical transit coach in Brazil is not air conditioned, even though the climate is
typically tropical. There has been some experimentation of classes of service with buses
operating with air conditioning for a doubled or higher fare, but this has not been
particularly successful.
One of the serious problems currently facing public transit in Brazil is the operation
of totally unregulated jitneys that are typically small vans owned by private individuals.
They often run ahead of a city bus, offering to carry passengers for a reduced price along
a route, sometimes to their destination. The advantage of a jitney is the lower fare, and
they typically offer a seat, while most Brazilian city buses are operating at standing
loads.
Another problem faced by Brazilian public transportation is the slowly increasing use
of the private automobile. Twenty years ago, public transit in Brazil had in excess of a
70 percent market share. Today, that market share has dropped to 50 percent. This is a
great concern to operators who are having difficulty recovering their full operating
expenses at the farebox.
I acquired this information through the unique opportunity provided by APTA for me to
attend the Twelfth Brazilian Public Transportation Conference in Recife, held from June 14
to 18. I lived in Brazil many years ago and, therefore, the Portuguese language was not an
obstacle. This national Brazilian public transit conference held every two years by ANTP
was attended by more than 1,000 representatives of public transit systems throughout the
country.
The conference included sessions similar to APTA technical sessions, plus an
international exposition, also similar to the APTA EXPO with industry suppliers exhibiting
equipment, products, and services. Although not on a scale as large as the APTA Orlando
convention, the Twelfth Congress was a tremendous success.
The ANTP membership primarily comes from three areas of Brazilian public transit.
Initially, the new rail systems in Rio and Sao Paulo provided the primary impetus for
ANTP. Since then, the private bus transit operators have become a major element, and there
is a very strong association with the academic community in Brazil. I believe this has led
to the very high quality presentations made at the conference.
A great deal of research and study is going on in Brazil to tackle the problems
resulting from an increase in the influence of the private automobile on transportation.
Brazilians take a rather different look at public transit, however, giving it priority
over the automobile in seeking ways to prevent the automobile from encroaching on that
priority.
The Congress was of great interest to the political arena, and many of the technical
sessions were moderated by congressional representatives of the Brazilian national
government, equivalent to U. S. senators and representatives.
I would like to give special thanks to Ailton Brasiliense Pires, executive director of
ANTP, and Eduardo A. Vasconcellos, deputy executive director, who were wonderfully
gracious hosts.
During meetings with the executive staff of ANTP, I delivered a message from APTA
President William W. Millar, inviting them to join APTA at its conference in Orlando to
open up a communications network of information sharing between our Brazilian counterparts
and the U. S. transit operators.
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