Illustrative objectives and tasks for IPFA Team has been:

1. Set procurement objectives: required MRT network element at best value for money (VfM); government control of fare policy; consistency with MRT network-wide integrated fare and ticketing arrangement.
2. Determine bid variable(s) which would best secure the said objectives.
3. Determine bid evaluation method to secure objectives above.
4. Prepare bid terms of reference, scope of work and associated documentation to go out with request for proposal

When the law passed in 2004, a concession project was prepared to finance and commission the new trains and systems, and operate the trains and the line according to service targets. Although the scope of the project was limited, its aim—to close the first successful PPP in Brazil structured under the law of 2004—was challenging, especially as the metro operator needed to be (literally) perfectly aligned with the infrastructure, which was still unfinished when the 30-year concession was awarded to the ViaQuatro consortium in 2006. The winners promised not only to deliver the metro trains on time but to introduce new technology to the country: the first driverless trains in Brazil and automatic doors on platforms.

Using the latest technology meant ordering trains from abroad: the trains are built by South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem and the train control system is supplied by Siemens. As such, the project was ineligible for a loan from Brazil’s national development bank, BNDES. This presented the sponsors with a problem.

The IDB directly lent a further $69 million to the PPP in a 15-year A loan. Financing was signed in October 2008. Inauguration of the line was delayed by problems with the civil works, rather than with the PPP, and sections began to open in 2010 until in October 2011 the whole line was in service. Traffic is now broadly in line with forecasts, carrying 650,000 people a day and rising. According to an independent survey carried in 2011, 89 percent of Line 4 passengers expressed satisfaction with the service. Line 4 connects up with three metro lines and three commuter rail lines, as well as bus services. Despite rising car ownership, the metro system’s share of motorized trips in the region increased from 16 percent in 2001 to 19.3 percent in 2011.

The concessionaire is remunerated in three different ways: a charge per passenger carried on the line daily, fixed payments to cover operation and maintenance costs (subject to performance targets), and revenues from commercial development at the metro stations. If passenger traffic is within 10 percent of the 10-year forecast, they absorb the upside or downside; if above or below, then the public authority shares in the gains or losses. Ticket revenues are retained by the authority. The new line has been revenue positive for the state-owned metro company, improving its profitability. After capacity building work by the World Bank, São Paulo is now preparing a PPP for line 6 that will include infrastructure works.