From Infrastructure-Technology Mismatch to Alignment in Brazilian Freight Railways: Investment Momentum and Pathways for Sustainable Logistics

This paper reframes the infrastructure-technology mismatch in Brazilian freight railways as an alignment and sequencing challenge rather than as a static structural deficiency. The analysis combines a green-logistics perspective with a systems view of rail transport and current Brazilian evidence on infrastructure investment, operating efficiency and decarbonisation. Recent data from the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) and the National Association of Railway Carriers (ANTF), together with the FICO-FIOL East-West Corridor and FIOL 1 projects, indicate that network expansion, regulatory coordination and rolling-stock innovation are advancing simultaneously, although not always at the same pace. The paper therefore proposes a balanced interpretation: technology can generate substantial benefits when it is matched by corridor capacity, intermodal terminals, energy supply, digital control and predictable regulation. The Brazilian decarbonisation agenda also extends beyond traction technology. Capacity expansion, network modernisation, wagon and locomotive renewal, renewable fuels, electrification and operational digitalisation form a complementary portfolio. The main contribution is an infrastructure-technology alignment framework that converts the original mismatch hypothesis into a constructive agenda for investment, policy and performance measurement. The FICO-FIOL programme is presented as a strategic test of this co-development approach.