-
Brazil and China have gone from a single feasibility-study memorandum to separate, unconnected national contracts — Peru's $420 million PowerChina deal and a new Brazilian rail tender — while the trans-Andean link joining them still has no construction date.
- The favored route runs roughly 4,000 kilometers from the Atlantic port of Ilhéus to the Chinese-built Chancay megaport, sidelining an older Bolivia-routed alternative first proposed in 2013.
-
Independent research estimates freight costs via Chancay could run up to 117% above existing Brazilian shipping routes, with at least 15 protected natural areas mapped along the corridor's possible paths.
A decade-old dream of threading a railway across South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific is edging closer to reality, one disconnected piece at a time. Argentine outlet Canal 26 revisited the project this month, more than a year after Brasília and Beijing formally relaunched talks in July 2025. Since then, contract awards, public tenders and technical studies have started giving shape to a route that still carries no opening date.
