Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) said he may decree forfeiture (termination) of the Trivia Trens concession if the company fails to fulfill what is stipulated in the contract.
In an interview on Thursday (23) in Ourinhos, in the interior of São Paulo, he called unacceptable the failure that caused chaos on metropolitan train lines 11-coral, 12-sapphire and 13-jade, three days after the company began operating the branches.
Following a series of problems, including a train fire, the Artesp (São Paulo State Transportation Agency) will return operation of the three lines starting this Friday (24) to the state-owned CPTM (Metropolitan Trains Company) for 90 days.
In a statement, Trivia Trens said the incident originated from an electrical problem in a train set on line 12-sapphire, between the Tatuapé and Brás stations, at around 5:40 a.m. The cause is under rigorous technical investigation, according to the company.
The company responsible for the lines states that it maintains dialogue with the state government and Artesp. "The concessionaire reiterates its technical and operational capacity to manage the lines, being fully available to act in cooperation with the Granting Authority, always prioritizing safety and the provision of quality service to the population," it declared.
The substation involved in the problem, which powers line 12, was shut down for safety reasons, and lines 11 and 13 were also suspended until the issue was resolved in the afternoon.
"The priority from the very first moment was the safety of people and the rapid mobilization of teams to restore operations in the shortest possible time," said the concessionaire.
To reporters from TV Tem, a Rede Globo affiliate, Tarcísio declared: "I think the company needs to be better prepared to take on this responsibility, this burden. What happened today is unacceptable. We will not tolerate it, because whenever you consider granting a public service, you do so with the intention of improving the service, never to leave citizens without assistance," he said.
When asked if he regretted having granted the concession, he said he did not. "Now, obviously, if the company fails to comply with what is stipulated in the contract, it will face sanctions and we will not hesitate at some point to remove the company from the contract and decree forfeiture."
Tarcísio said a crisis cabinet was set up early on Thursday morning. He cited the projected R$ 14.7 billion in investments across the three lines and listed decades-old problems on the branches that need to be resolved.
"For example, we still have stations without accessibility to this day. To this day we have elevators that don't work — that's not a problem that started three days ago, it's a longstanding problem. It wasn't a wonderful line up until yesterday, the day before yesterday, and it became a very bad line as of today," he said.
"We know the service is poor," he said. "It is for no other reason that R$ 14.7 billion in investment is planned for this concession," he said.
"It would be dishonest of anyone to think you can solve a decades-long problem of underinvestment in two or three days. We have an entire journey of investments to carry out."
DAY OF CHAOS
A power supply failure and a fire on a train brought Lines 11-Coral, 12-Sapphire and 13-Jade to a standstill on Thursday morning (23rd) in São Paulo. All three lines are operated by the concessionaire Trivia Trens. The situation was only fully resolved in the early afternoon.
Passengers had to walk along the tracks to reach stations. Many were forced to climb over walls surrounding the lines and continue on foot along avenues for long stretches.
The São Paulo city government decided to suspend vehicle traffic restrictions on Thursday due to the problems on the trains.
