New Railway Will Link Porto Alegre Airport to Gramado

The Porto Alegre Gramado railway has been approved by the state government of Rio Grande do Sul, creating what would be one of Brazil’s most significant passenger rail projects in decades — a line designed to connect the state capital’s international airport directly to the country’s most visited mountain tourism destination, agência latinapress reported.

The project carries an estimated investment of R$4.5 billion (~$855 million), fully funded by the private sector through a long-term concession. Dual tracks will allow high-frequency service using hybrid electric-diesel trains, and the ride from Salgado Filho airport to Gramado is expected to take approximately one hour — a significant improvement over the current two-hour drive on the RS-020 and RS-115, roads that become dangerously congested during winter festival season and holiday weekends.

A Tourism Play With Infrastructure Roots

The route passes through the scenic landscapes of the Serra Gaúcha, which organizers describe as part of the experience rather than merely the means of transport. The terminus will sit on the Avenida das Hortênsias, the main tourist corridor linking Gramado to neighboring Canela — placing passengers within walking distance of hotels, restaurants, and the region’s principal attractions. The project is explicitly framed as both a mobility solution and a tourism product, combining infrastructure investment with experiential travel in a way that has proven commercially successful in European mountain rail systems.

The economic projections are substantial. Beyond the R$4.5 billion in construction investment, the state estimates 22,000 direct and indirect jobs across the build and operational phases, with multiplier effects expected across hospitality, services, and regional real estate. Gramado and Canela together receive millions of visitors annually and are Brazil’s top-rated domestic destinations on TripAdvisor — but access has remained limited to road transport, creating bottlenecks that constrain growth and raise accident risk.

Part of Brazil’s Broader Rail Revival

The Porto Alegre–Gramado line arrives in the context of Brazil’s most ambitious railway expansion push in decades, with eight federal concession auctions scheduled for 2026 covering over 9,000 km and R$600 billion in investment. But those projects are almost exclusively freight-oriented — soybeans, iron ore, containers. Passenger rail remains the neglected sibling: Brazil has roughly 30,000 km of track but moves almost no one by train outside urban commuter systems in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The Gramado project joins São Paulo’s R$14.2 billion intercity rail to Campinas and the R$21 billion Santos–Cajati coastal line as part of an emerging wave of passenger rail proposals that would have been dismissed as fantasy five years ago. What has changed is the funding model: all three rely on private concessions rather than public budgets, reflecting a broader shift in how Brazil finances infrastructure.

Timeline and Risks

The planning was presented in 2024 and the state has now approved the project, but critical steps remain. Environmental licensing — always the longest and least predictable phase of Brazilian infrastructure projects — has not been completed. Construction timelines and topographical surveys must navigate mountainous terrain. The projected operational start between 2030 and 2033 is contingent on all phases proceeding on schedule, a condition that few major Brazilian infrastructure projects have historically met.

If it delivers, the line would transform how Brazilians and international visitors access the Serra Gaúcha — turning a mountain tourism region currently reachable only by car into a destination connected directly to an international airport by rail. For a country that has spent a century dismantling its passenger railways, the ambition alone is worth watching.