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Criciúma city hall initiated topographic studies for a project that plans to elevate the Tereza Cristina railway 7 meters above ground in the urban section, a R$ 250 million work still without an execution date, while the concession for the railway that transports coal to Jorge Lacerda expires in 2027 and is negotiating a 30-year renewal.
Criciúma city hall, in the South of Santa Catarina, began topographic studies this Monday (4) for one of the most ambitious projects in the municipality’s recent history: elevating the section of the Tereza Cristina railway (FTC) that cuts through the urban area seven meters above ground. The intervention, estimated at R$ 250 million and still in the planning phase, includes elevating the railway tracks from the Rio Maina region to the Milanese neighborhood, after the crossing with Avenida Centenário, in an attempt to resolve a conflict that has existed since the city grew around a railway network inaugurated in 1884. Technical teams are conducting field measurements, ground level verification, identification of reference points, and drilling for soil analysis, work that should support engineering studies with an expected completion by the end of 2026.
The project gains additional relevance by happening at a time when the concession of the Tereza Cristina railway, operated by the company Ferrovia Tereza Cristina S.A. since February 1, 1997, expires in January 2027. The concessionaire is negotiating with the Ministry of Transport and ANTT (National Land Transport Agency) for a renewal for another 30 years, with a planned investment of R$ 131 million, which includes R$ 30 million specifically allocated to solving urban conflicts in the 14 municipalities served by the railway, a value that directly connects with the type of intervention Criciúma is planning. “This is not a work for now, but it is a project we need to start working on immediately. The elevation of the railway is a structural intervention, designed for the coming decades, and it can transform the city’s relationship with the railway line,” declared Vagner Espindola, known as Vaguinho, mayor of Criciúma.
The railway Criciúma wants to elevate has existed since 1884 and transports mineral coal
The Tereza Cristina railway is not a common railway line: it is a strategic network for the energy matrix of Southern Santa Catarina. Built between 1880 and 1884 by the English company The Donna Theresa Christina Railway Company Limited under imperial concession, the railway was created to transport mineral coal from the interior of Santa Catarina to the Port of Imbituba, a function it maintains to this day by supplying the Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Complex in Capivari de Baixo, a plant that depends on coal transported by the tracks to generate energy. In 29 years of private concession, the railway moved 78.1 million tons of coal and 4.96 million tons of containerized cargo, numbers that dimension the logistical scale that passes through the same tracks that Criciúma wants to elevate seven meters above ground.
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The railway extends for 164 kilometers from Siderópolis to Imbituba, crossing 14 municipalities in Santa Catarina. The coal sector that the railway supports directly employs about 5,000 people and another 20,000 indirectly, moving R$ 5 billion in the regional economy, a weight that makes any intervention in the railway network an issue that transcends municipal interest and affects the energy and industrial policy of Santa Catarina. The conflict between the railway and Criciúma’s urban growth is old: the city grew around the tracks, not the other way around, and decades of expansion without specific planning for the coexistence between freight trains and urban traffic produced the bottlenecks that the R$ 250 million project aims to resolve.
What the railway elevation project foresees and what is still missing
The project includes raising the entire railway structure seven meters high in the urban section of Criciúma. The elevation would free up the ground for vehicles and pedestrians to pass under the tracks, eliminating level crossings that currently interrupt traffic when freight trains pass, and would create a free circulation lane that would transform the relationship between the city and the railway that divides it. The estimated cost of R$ 250 million positions the project as one of the largest investments in urban infrastructure in Criciúma’s history.
What is currently underway, however, is only the initial stage of a long process. For the project to actually get off the ground, the following are still needed: completion of topographic studies, elaboration of the complete executive project, technical and financial feasibility analysis, environmental licensing, definition of the funding source (which may come from own resources, PAC, BNDES or urban consortium operation), coordination with the railway concessionaire, possible ANTT approval, and bidding for the work. None of these steps have been completed, and Mayor Vaguinho makes it clear that the project is for “the next decades,” not for the current term, an honesty that differentiates serious planning from an electoral promise.
How the railway concession renewal connects with the Criciúma project
The temporal coincidence between the municipal project and the negotiation for the railway concession renewal creates an opportunity that would not exist otherwise. Ferrovia Tereza Cristina S.A., under the presidency of Benony Schmitz Filho, is negotiating a concession renewal for another 30 years with an investment of R$ 131 million divided into R$ 45 million for maintenance and improvements of the railway line, R$ 56 million for modernization of locomotives and wagons, and R$ 30 million for solving urban conflicts in the municipalities served by the railway. The R$ 30 million that the concessionaire allocates to urban conflicts is a fraction of the R$ 250 million that Criciúma estimates for the elevation, but it represents a sign that the company recognizes the problem and is willing to contribute financially.
The synergy between the municipal project and the railway concession renewal has not yet been formalized in an agreement. But the logic is evident: Criciúma needs to resolve the conflict between the city and the tracks, the concessionaire needs to resolve the same conflict to renew the concession with political support from the municipalities, and the federal government needs both to agree to keep the railway operating as a strategic logistical route for the Jorge Lacerda Complex. If the renewal is approved for another 30 years, the Tereza Cristina railway will continue transporting coal and containerized cargo through Criciúma until 2057, a scenario that makes the elevation of the tracks an investment whose utility extends for decades and whose absence is felt every time a train stops city traffic.
What the future of coal and the railway means for Criciúma
The railway elevation project takes place in a context of uncertainty about the future of mineral coal in the Brazilian energy matrix. Engie, manager of the Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Complex, announced that it will exit coal operations starting in 2025, but the plant may continue operating if a new investor group takes over, which means the railway will remain an essential logistical piece as long as there is demand for coal in energy generation. The diversification of the railway for containerized cargo and ceramic products, through the South Intermodal Terminal (TIS) connected to the Port of Imbituba, is a strategy that reduces dependence on coal and can sustain the relevance of the railway network even in a scenario of energy transition.
For Criciúma, the railway elevation does not depend on what happens with coal: the urban conflict exists regardless of the cargo the trains carry. As long as trains cross the city, there will be a need for a solution that allows the railway to operate without interrupting the daily life of a municipality with over 200,000 inhabitants that grew around century-old tracks. The R$ 250 million project is a response that combines urban planning with logistical realism, and the topographic study started this Monday is the first concrete step on a path that will take years but needs to begin so that the solution arrives before the problem becomes unmanageable.
And you, do you think elevating the railway by 7 meters is the best solution for Criciúma? Do you know another city with a similar conflict between railway and urban area? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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