This Light Rail Vehicle Should Have Been Delivered in 2014, Cost R$ 1 Billion, and Has Never Left the Drawing Board

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 22/07/2025 at 06:56

Updated on 22/07/2025 at 06:57

Foto; Reprodução

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Promised as a Legacy of the 2014 World Cup, the VLT of Cuiabá Consumed Over R$ 1 Billion of Public Funds. A Decade Later, the Project Remains a Symbol of Waste, Unfulfilled Promises, and Abandonment.

The Light Rail Vehicle (VLT) of Cuiabá was an ambitious public transportation project planned to serve the Metropolitan Region of Cuiabá and Várzea Grande in Mato Grosso.

Initially conceived for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it aimed to modernize mobility between key points in the region, but ended up becoming an example of an unfinished project and public controversy.

Context and Original Scope

The VLT is planned to have about 22.2 km in length, with 32 stations distributed across two lines: one connecting the Marechal Rondon International Airport in Várzea Grande to the Political and Administrative Center (CPA) of Cuiabá (15 km and 22 stations); and another connecting the South Center to Coxipó in Cuiabá (7.2 km and 11 stations).

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Alternatives and Change of Course

The State of Mato Grosso decided to abandon the completion of the VLT, opting to implement a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system with a dedicated corridor for electric buses.

The proposal emerged in a public consultation in 2021, when the modal switch was evaluated for technical and financial reasons.

The structures of the VLT began to be dismantled in 2022–2023, giving way to BRT construction, even in the face of resistance from the municipality of Cuiabá determined to resume the rail system.

The political fragmentation deepened the impasse between state and municipal levels, especially after the state government sold the trains to the State of Bahia in 2024 for R$ 793.7 million.

Destination of Rolling Stock

Of the 40 CAF Urbos trains, 7 were relocated in mid-2025 to Hortolândia (SP), where they will undergo maintenance before heading to Salvador (BA) for integration into the new local VLT.

The negotiation was facilitated by the TCU and by the party consortium, sealed in an agreement involving Mato Grosso, Bahia, and CAF.

The VLT of Cuiabá has become an emblematic case study in managing large urban projects in Brazil.

Designed to transform urban mobility before 2014, it became a symbol of the complexity of integrating planning, bidding, public management, and economic viability in metropolitan territories.

With over R$ 1 billion already invested, the abandonment and conversion to BRT point to a lesson on fiscal and technical realism, though they also provoke collective frustration.

The sale of the trains and their use in Salvador may mitigate financial losses.

However, the debate about the future of mobility in Cuiabá remains open: BRT or, who knows, one day, again, the VLT on the city’s tracks.

This Light Rail Vehicle Should Have Been Delivered in 2014, Cost R$ 1 Billion, and Has Never Left the Drawing Board

Promised as a Legacy of the 2014 World Cup, the VLT of Cuiabá Consumed Over R$ 1 Billion of Public Funds. A Decade Later, the Project Remains a Symbol of Waste, Unfulfilled Promises, and Abandonment.

Context and Original Scope

Alternatives and Change of Course

Destination of Rolling Stock

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This Light Rail Vehicle Should Have Been Delivered in 2014, Cost R$ 1 Billion, and Has Never Left the Drawing Board

Promised as a Legacy of the 2014 World Cup, the VLT of Cuiabá Consumed Over R$ 1 Billion of Public Funds. A Decade Later, the Project Remains a Symbol of Waste, Unfulfilled Promises, and Abandonment.

Context and Original Scope

Alternatives and Change of Course

Destination of Rolling Stock

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Seven world powers including the US, China, and Russia are spending €22 billion on a reactor in the south of France that aims to confine plasma at 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times the temperature of the Sun’s core, using a magnetic field capable of lifting an entire aircraft carrier.

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With a wingspan of 152 meters, 76 tires, and a capacity to carry 1,270 tons, the Boeing Pelican was the giant “flying ship” that promised to cross oceans close to the water on an invisible air cushion beneath its wings.

A public school student single-handedly created a machine capable of treating water for up to 50 people using only solar energy. It was awarded third place at one of the most important science fairs in the world.

China has begun the second phase of energy assistance to Cuba with a 120 MW solar generation plan, and the first result is a photovoltaic park with batteries that regulates voltage, controls frequency, and provides local autonomy to an island suffocated by chronic blackouts.

Germany installed vertical solar panels on a lake in Bavaria, and the result broke conventional logic: instead of producing energy at midday peak, the plant generates more early in the morning and in the evening, exactly when families turn on appliances and factories are in full swing.

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