From the 1930s to the 1970s, the railways were the main way to transport agricultural product from the rural farms to the ports. However, the different gauges, owners and severed connections between multiple networks lead to the abandonment of much of the rail network, being replaced with highways.
Predecessors The first incentive to start building a rail network in Brazil occurred in 1828, when the then imperial government incentivized the building of all transport roads. The first significant try to build a railway was the founding on an Anglo-Brazilian company in
Rio de Janeiro in 1832, which planned to connect the city of
Porto Feliz to the
port of Santos. The government, however, did not support the project and so it did not progress any further. Three years later, in 1835, the regent
Diogo Antônio Feijó passed the Imperial Law n.º 101, which conceded privileges for 40 years to whoever built railways connecting Rio de Janeiro to the capitals of
Minas Gerais,
Rio Grande do Sul, and
Bahia. Even with the incentives in place, no investor risked starting the project, as there was no guarantee that this railway would be profitable. Some groups did study the possibility of building this railway and its profitability, including another group of English and Brazilian investors, but none of them actually started building the infrastructure. On 26 July 1852, Law 641, which gave advantages like a 90-year guarantee of a 33 km exclusion zone, the right to desapropriate any land that was "in the way", and a tax break for the import of railway material. However, it also came with an 8% limit to all dividends. With a revision of interest rate from 5% to 12%, the interest in building railways in Brazil spiked across the world, mainly in England, which was the main force behind the early construction efforts.
First railways . . Some time before the enacting of Law 641, the banker
Irineu Evangelista de Souza requested permission to build a railway connecting the Port of Mauá, in the
Bay of Guanabara, to Raiz da Serra. This railway became effectively the first-ever Brazilian railway, being inaugurated on 30 April 1854, with only 14.5 km of track and 1,676m (5' 6") gauge. Irineu's company,
Imperial Companhia de Navegação a Vapor - Estrada de Ferro Petrópolis ("Imperial Steam Navigation Company - Petropolis Railroad"), realized the first port-railway operation in Brazil, transporting cargo from the ship
Praça XV to Raiz da Serra. The
Mauá Railway had little value besides its political and symbolic values, however. Mauá directly and indirectly participated in the building of nine other railways in Brazil. The first section of the Recife and São Francisco Railway Company, which had 31 km between Cinco Pontas in
Recife and the vila do Cabo, opened to regular traffic on 8 February 1858. This was the second-ever railway in Brazil, being managed by the first British company that settled in Brazil. The planned construction was only finished in 1862, due to delays caused by a variety of problems. The first stretch of the
Companhia Estrada de Ferro D. Pedro II ("Dom Pedro II Railroad Company") was opened on 29 March 1858, with the 47,21 km connection between the Estação da Corte and
Queimados, in Rio de Janeiro. Later, with the proclamation of the republic, this railway was renamed the
Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil ("Central Brazil Railroad"), which was one of the main axis of connection between Rio de Janeiro and
São Paulo in 1877, when the Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II connected to the
Estrada de Ferro São Paulo. '' (1863) was the first city in the world to operate steam locomotives specially designed to run in the roads: the so-called "maxambomba" was inaugurated in 1867. In 1867,
São Paulo Railway Ltd was founded: the first railway built in the state of
São Paulo, connecting the Port of Santos with the coffee farms. (SP), part of the Estrada de Ferro Minas e Rio. (1885) in 1888. In late 1889, when the republic was proclaimed, there were 9,583 km of active railways in Brazil, which served 14 of the 20 provinces. The government of the republic decided to start a new plan to build railways across Brazil, but few new railways were actually built because of the government financial crisis.
Expansion in the 1900s, by Guilherme Gaensly In 1907, the process of leasing out the Brazilian rail network started, with a statement from then president
Campos Sales: During the years of the
Old Republic, there was significant expansion of the rail network, reaching 29.000 km of rails, versus the 9.538 km that existed during the imperial period. The biggest expansion occurred in the state of São Paulo, where at its peak there were 18 railways, the biggest being the E.F Sorocabana, with 2074 km, Mogiana, with 1954 km, the E.F Noroeste do Brasil, with 1539 km and the Cia. Paulista de Estradas de Ferro with 1536 km, and the São Paulo railway, which held the connection with the port of Santos. Together, they helped the growth of agriculture and industry in the state. Besides the railways in São Paulo, other significant railways were founded in this age, like the Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas in 1903 and the Madeira-Mamoré railway in 1912 Electric locomotives, planned since 1922, were introduced in the 1930s, to substitute steam locomotives in some stretches of track. In 1938, diesel-electric locomotives started operating in Brazil, and continue to be the main locomotives in use to this day. Starting with the first government of
Getúlio Vargas, the development of highways was prioritized, putting others ways, which until then had played key roles in national planning in the background. At this time, the nationalization of the railways also started, mainly the ones controlled by overseas companies. However, the lack of planning and investment in the interwar period made railways fall into disrepair, and few new tracks were laid.
Nationalization era In the 50s, the government request a study into the state of the railways in Brazil, which as of 1956 represented 14% of the debt country-wide. On 30 September 1957, the
Rede Ferroviária Federal S.A. (RFFSA) was created, uniting 22 railways. Its objective was to standardize the railways, reduce the debts and modernize the network. In 1971, the government of the state of São Paulo founded the other great state-owned railway, the
FEPASA, uniting five railways already owned by the state. In the start, it had almost 5000 km of track, covering almost all of the state of São Paulo. With the objective to reduce the debt of the railways, the used track was cut down to 32.163 km in 1964, and in the following years many branch lines which were considered uneconomical were closed down. With the economical and political crisis that were happening in Brazil in the '70s, the RFFSA lost most of its budget. During the '80s, a lot of the network fell into permanent disrepair, and the railways, which were the most efficient method of transport lost much of its market share. In the end of the '80s, the RFFSA's budget was only 19% of what it was in the end of the '70s.
Privatization era On 10 March 1992, the RFFSA entered
Collor's de-nationalization program. Due to the opening up of the economy, Brazil entering international markets and the need for better alternatives for cargo transport, the RFFSA was sold off to private companies in 1996, with FEPASA following up in 1997. With the extinction of the RFFSA, most passenger lines were also extinct, with only the Trem de Prata, which connect Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo surviving for one more year, being extinct 1998.
Historic Tramways Brazil is the fifth-largest country in the world and had a hundred tram systems, almost as many as all the other Latin American countries combined. It had one of the world's first tramways: an 1859 system in Rio de Janeiro pre-dates street railway experiments in all European countries except France. Trams still operate in Rio today, over 150 years later. Brazil has one of the first steam-powered street railways and had the world's first steam locomotive designed specifically to work on the street. It had one of the world's first electric trams, Rio de Janeiro had electric streetcars before London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon and any other city in Latin America. Niterói, Brazil, may have been the first place where the trams were successfully fed by storage batteries. Brazil had the largest collection of American streetcars built outside the United States, and had the world's largest foreign-owned street railway empire. Five trams were still operating in 1989, the Santa Teresa and Corcovado lines in Rio de Janeiro; the Campos do Jordão line near São Paulo; the Itatinga line near Bertioga; and the tourist tram in Campinas. A sixth line, the Tirirical tram near São Luís, ceased operation in 1983 but may be reactivated. Currently, there are
vintage tramways operating in: •
Campinas – Heritage Tram •
Campos do Jordão – Interurban Tramway •
Itatinga – Non-public Tramway •
Rio de Janeiro –
Santa Teresa Tram •
Santos –
Santos tramways, Heritage Tramway •
Belém – Heritage Tramway
Historical Railway companies ;Pre-1957 companies - this list is incomplete •
Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil, nationalised 1957 •
Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas, a part of this railway still operates as a heritage railway •
Estrada Ferro Recife ao São Francisco • •
Estrada de Ferro Santos-Jundiaí, nationalised 1957 - gauge • •
São Paulo Railway, nationalised 1946, renamed
Estrada de Ferro Santos-Jundiaí 1948
State ownership •
Estrada de Ferro Central de Pernambuco •
RFFSA (Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima). Created in 1957 and dissolved between 1999 and 2007. ==Locomotives==