Ferrovia como recurso de uso comum: um arranjo institucional para o compartilhamento efetivo da capacidade nos corredores saturados de acesso portuário

Abstract

[Contextualization] The railway corridor providing access to the Port of Santos more than doubled its transported cargo volume between 2011 and 2025. During the same period, it did not receive a single independent operator, even though reciprocal traffic, trackage rights, and independent railway operations have been regulated since 2011. [Problem] The study examines which public policy institutional arrangement, grounded in the governance of common-pool resources, can overcome the underlying causes that have prevented these mechanisms from translating into effective capacity sharing along the corridor. [Objective] The study diagnoses the causes of ineffectiveness, which lie in the incomplete transition from a service-based regime to an infrastructure-based regime and in five interconnected failures, particularly the information asymmetry associated with self-declared capacity. It then designs the corresponding institutional response: ratified co-regulation, comprising a corridor-based capacity committee with decisions subject to approval by ANTT, reform of the Network Statement, participatory monitoring with graduated sanctions, expedited conflict-resolution mechanisms, and experimental implementation through a regulatory sandbox. [Methodology] The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, with qualitative predominance, structured as an instrumental single-case study. It combines documentary analysis based on the institutional framework with descriptive statistics drawn from public sector databases, and benchmarks the European allocation procedure, consolidated in Regulation (EU) 2026/1184, against the documented failure of bilateral negotiation under the Americas model. [Contribution] The study proposes a third pathway between regulated tariffs and imposed bilateral access: ratified multilateral allocation, which can be implemented without new legislation. It also introduces the concept of the functional autonomy of surplus capacity. [Theoretical Framework] The study draws on Elinor Ostrom's theory of common-pool resources, the economics of shared infrastructure, the anticommons perspective, and the legal doctrine governing infrastructure concessions and co-regulation.