[3][4] While originally planned to be operational by 2014 in time for the 20th FIFA World Cup, to be held in Brazil[5] at a cost of $9 billion,[6] as of May 2015 formal bidding for the project had yet to start, with the Brazilian government delaying the auction by "at least" one year in August 2013,[7] pushing back hopes of completion to at least the 2020s.

The project was canceled in 2007 because the Brazilian government concluded that it was more viable to connect Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with a single line 518 kilometres (322 mi) long.

Only the foreign technology suppliers attended the event arguing that no Brazilian contractor showed interest in investing in the project of construction of the railroad, a condition of bidding documents.

[19] The proposed bullet train project was presented to the city by Helio de Oliveira Santos (PDT), mayor of Campinas, in Brasília, to be built by the Japanese consortium within five years (ready for the World Cup in 2014).

The Japanese consortium presented its proposal based on the Shinkansen, which carried 340 million passengers the previous year on 2100 km of track.

One is the Italian design company's Italplan Engineering Environment & Transport Srl, whose proposal envisaged the high-speed train starting operations in 2015.

If this target date had been met it would have served as a quick and vital link to São Paulo in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The resultant network, centred on São Paulo, would serve an area containing more than half of Brazil's economic output and population.