Ramal de Sao Paulo
The Ramal de São Paulo is a railway line between the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil.
history
The Ramal de São Paulo was built by large landowners and coffee planters in the valley of the Rio Paríba do Sul from 1869. For this purpose, the railway company EF do Norte (also called EF São Paulo-Rio) was founded, which opened the first section from São Paulo (Linha SPR) to Cachoeira (Paulista) on May 12, 1877, where the line was transferred to the line from Barra do Piraí as a branch coming from the EFCB - Linha do Centro in Rio de Janeiro (railway company EF Dom Pedro II). A little later in 1890, the EF Dom Pedro II and the EF do Norte were transferred to the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil railway company .
The construction of the railway revitalized most of the places it passed through, and there was an economic boom in these regions. The only problem with the two lines was that they had been built with different gauge. The change to a uniform track width (1.60 m) by Central do Brasil was carried out in the years 1902 to 1908.
From 1957 the line became part of the Rfssa railway company . The section between Mogi das Cruzes and São José dos Campos was closed at the end of the 1980s because the route via Parateí (further north) was preferred. October 31, 1998 was a black day in the history of the railways in Brazil because regular passenger traffic between Rio and São Paulo was suspended. This stopped the famous Trem de Prata (a salon passenger train service). On the remaining routes, there is still suburban traffic with passengers near urban centers such as Mogi, Brás and Estudantes. The Trem de Prata still runs irregularly for tourists. The operator of the route is the railway company MRS Logística .