Brazil regulator approves rail freight services and safety rule

Brazil’s National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) approved its Regulation of Railway Services and Safety, known as RSF 1, at a board meeting on October 22, according to a release published the following day. The rule sets responsibilities for operators, service-quality requirements and ways for users to bring complaints to the agency. It applies to freight railways operating under both public concession and private authorization regimes and forms part of a broader update to Brazil’s general conditions for rail transport.

The new rule organizes the path for resolving service problems. A user may turn to ANTT if the provider has not resolved a complaint; in cases involving imminent risk, significant public interest or repeated violations, the user may contact the agency directly. ANTT says it has up to 30 days to examine a complaint, with one possible extension. The announcement describes a regulatory response process, not a guaranteed resolution deadline for every underlying dispute or a record of how many complaints are pending.

The regulation also adds tools for user participation and monitoring. These include tripartite commissions, user councils and satisfaction surveys. Concessionaires must respond to council recommendations, while independent entities are to send survey results to ANTT. The agency presents these provisions as ways to bring service quality and user experience into oversight. The release does not publish the final survey design, a service-performance baseline or numerical targets, so implementation and the effect on rail operations will need to be assessed later.

Tariff rules vary according to the operating model. For concessions and subconcessions, charges must remain within ANTT-set limits and follow objective, nondiscriminatory criteria. Authorized operators and railway transport agents may negotiate prices freely within legal and regulatory boundaries. This distinction preserves separate pricing arrangements within the same regulatory framework. The agency’s announcement summarizes the principles but does not provide individual freight tariffs, contract-specific limits or a schedule of price changes.

The approval also amends the Railway Grants Regulation established in August 2026. ANTT said public-call periods for railway authorizations may now be set according to the nature and complexity of each project, provided the decision has technical justification. The proposal had been subject to Public Hearing 5/2026 from April 6 through May 20; the agency reported 226 submissions, of which 97 were fully accepted and 51 partly accepted. The release frames RSF 1 as a consolidation of dispersed rules, with its practical obligations now to be applied across the covered freight network. The distinction in the complaint route is procedural: ordinary unresolved complaints reach ANTT after the provider has had an opportunity to respond, while the release names imminent risk, significant public interest and repeated violations as grounds for direct contact.