The story
The company started in 1996, following the privatization of the state-owned Brazilian railway operator RFFSA. After winning a 30 year concession in auction for R$ 888.9 million, MRS was allowed to operate and maintain the southeastern Brazilian rail network, effective September 1996.
At the time, MRS's major shareholders were large steelmaking and mining companies, including the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, Usiminas, and Vale.
Its network combines the lines from Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro-Belo Horizonte, São Paulo-Santos and Ferrovia do Aço ("Railroad of Steel").
These lines are in the richest and populous area of Brazil (54% of Brazil's GDP), and MRS has connections to three of the most important seaports of Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Itaguaí and Santos. The company also has a connection to the privately owned iron ore terminal of Minerações Brasileiras Reunidas (now part of Vale) in Ilha de Guaíba on Angra dos Reis bay.
The railway employs the world's most powerful cog locomotives on the line from Santos to São Paulo.
From Wikipedia’s article on MRS Logística, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5