Brazil revives bullet train

By Denise Luna

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's government, confronting chaos in domestic air travel, is dusting off plans to have a high-speed train line built between the country's two biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials say.

The project, which should cost over $6 billion and take at least five years to complete, has already attracted the interest of local and foreign firms. The train line should allow travel from one megalopolis to another in less than an hour and a half, compared with about an hour by plane and six hours by bus. The two cities are about 256 miles (430 km) apart.

The plan is gaining importance on the Transport Ministry's agenda at a time when air traffic controllers' strikes are affecting air travel, including the busy Rio-to-Sao Paulo route.

A source close to Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento said a viability study prepared last year pointed to the need for an international tender for a concession to build and operate such a line.

"The project cannot be done at the public expense," the source said, adding Nascimento was "an enthusiast" of the bullet train idea, which would put Brazil in line with a global trend.

On Tuesday, a French bullet train set the world railway speed record of 357 mph (574.8 kph), drawing attention to a travel sector growing in many countries and rivaling air travel.

Brazil has few -- mainly cargo -- railroads, and transports passengers mostly by bus. It nurtured plans for its own bullet train in the 1990s, but a string of economic crises emptied government coffers and slashed Brazilians' travel budgets.