About this journey

Marabá station sits at the confluence of the Tocantins and Itacaiúnas rivers, a logistics hub transformed when the Estrada de Ferro Carajás entered service there in 1984. That broad-gauge railway — formally designated EF-315 and operated by mining company Vale S.A. — stretches 892 km from the mineral province of Serra dos Carajás westward to São Luís on the Atlantic coast. Construction began in August 1982, and the line was officially inaugurated on 28 February 1985 by President João Figueiredo. A key moment in its completion was the finishing of the Ponte Mista de Marabá over the Rio Tocantins in October 1984, after which the final track-laying was concluded on 15 February 1985.

The railway was engineered to demanding standards: a minimum curve radius of 860 m and a maximum grade of 0.4 % in the export direction allow speeds of up to 132 km/h, while in the import direction the grade reaches 1 % and standard operating speed is up to 80 km/h on unrestricted track. The SD70M locomotive at the head of this service is rated at 4,300 hp. Passenger services were inaugurated commercially in March 1986 and carry around 350,000 passengers per year. The journey ends at Açailândia station, a node in the Carajás Development Corridor whose city traces its origins to the construction of the Belém-Brasília highway in 1958 — a reminder that this corner of western Maranhão has been shaped by successive waves of large-scale infrastructure.