Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro

Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro (also called Companhia Paulista de Vias Férreas and Fluviais) was a Brazilian railway company located in the state of São Paulo. It was known for its high standard of quality in customer service.

It remained in activity from August 1872 until October 1971, when it was extinguished and incorporated into FEPASA - Ferrovia Paulista S/A.

Jundiaí–Rio Claro
The railway was idealized, in 1864, by a group of farmers, traders and capitalists who needed a means of draining the coffee grown in the interior of the state of São Paulo. They intended that São Paulo Railway, "Ingleza" or "Santos–Jundiaí", would take their rails to São João do Rio Claro (current Rio Claro), since it held the concession for this purpose.

The decision to found the company came after the São Paulo Railway declared that it would not be possible to extend the railway further, not even to the city of Campinas, due to the losses with the Paraguayan War. The tracks of the São Paulo Railway only reached Jundiaí. In this city began to build the railways of the company towards the interior of São Paulo.

The president of the province of São Paulo at the time, Saldanha Marinho, had a fundamental role in the founding of the company in 1868, bringing together in the same ideal the capitalists and farmers who were fighting for political interests at that time.

Companhia Paulista was then founded on 30 January 1868, under the presidency of Clemente Falcão de Sousa Filho, but construction work on the line began more than a year after that date, after the approval of the statutes of Companhia Paulista by Imperial Government. On 11 August 1872, with a gauge of 1,600 mm, the first section was opened, between Jundiaí and Campinas.

Rio Claro–São Carlos
Its tracks advanced inland, reaching Rio Claro in 1875 and Descalvado in 1876. However, its growth was put in check when Paulista did not accept to bend to political interests that required the extension of São Carlos to pass through the Morro Pellado (current Itirapina) to attend the influential farmers, based in neighboring Itaqueri da Serra and also in the so-called "Itaqueri de Baixo".

Likewise, due to political criteria, in the management of Laurindo Abelardo de Brito as president of the province of São Paulo, Paulista was prevented from extending its lines to Ribeirão Preto, which ended up in Descalvado.

This extension was granted to the Companhia Mogiana, in an evident "breach" of its original layout. Then, the Companhia Rio Claro was founded, which took the extension concession to São Carlos and Araraquara, with an extension to Jaú and Bauru departing from Itirapina. by the engineer Antonio Francisco de Paula Souza. Some years later, it was proposed by the Companhia Rio Claro that belonged to the Count of Pinhal and to the Major Benedito Antonio da Silva, the merger of Rio Claro and Paulista, however, the proposed bases for such a transaction were not accepted by Paulista, through its then-president Fidêncio Nepomuceno Prates, despite the recommendation of members of its technical staff who inspected the facilities of Companhia Rio Claro, for the merger to take place.

Soon after, Companhia Rio Claro was sold to "The Rio Claro São Paulo Railway Company", headquartered in London, which provided the line with several improvements and extensions. Due to rumors of a possible merger of "The Rio Claro" with Mogiana, the board of directors of Paulista, through its president Antônio da Silva Prado authorized the purchase of "The Rio Claro" in the year of 1892, for the sum of 2,775,000 pounds, with a loan of £2,750,000 obtained in London and £25,000 at the time of purchase.

Expansion
In 1891, Paulista acquired two small 0.60m gauge railways that approached Rio Claro and Mogiana: Companhia Descalvadense and Companhia Ramal Ferreo de Santa Rita.

From there, Paulista was able to extend its inland lines, becoming tributaries of a very rich sector of the state limited between the Peixe and Mojiguaçu rivers, also having tributaries such as Companhia Douradense, Noroeste do Brasil, Estrada de Ferro Araraquara, São Paulo-Goiás, Mogiana, Funilense and Ramal Férreo Campineiro.

Upon receiving the lines from the Rio Claro Railway on April 1, 1892, Companhia Paulista divided its network into two sections: Paulista, which had 1.6m gauge lines and two small 0.6m gauge lines, and Rio Claro, with all the metre-gauge lines.

After that, Paulista developed and much, the infrastructure received from the English, expanding and improving the Stations, such as those in Rio Claro (which was completely rebuilt, with large garages) and São Carlos (which had many expansions and the installation of metallic armor of its wide station) and the stone support of the permanent way, among other items of great importance.

The company has always lent support to its tax companies such as the Dourado, São Paulo-Goyaz/Pitangueiras, Jaboticabal, Morro Agudo, and Barra Bonita companies, going so far as to acquire, since the 1930s, shareholdings of those railways. One of them, Pitangueiras, which had previously been integrated by incorporation into São Paulo-Goyáz and later, near bankruptcy, organized under the name of Companhia Ferroviária São Paulo-Goyáz, sold in 1927 to Paulista, its Pitangueiras Section, so that the trunk line could use the layout of the original Pitangueiras, from Passagem to Ibitiuva and from there to Bebedouro, as the most suitable option for extending the 1,6m gauge from Rincão to Barretos and later to the Porto Cemitério (later Colômbia), on the banks of Rio Grande. Believing in the potential of the livestock industry in the north of the state, Paulista organized with third parties the Companhia Frigorífica e Pastoril (CFP), which was later transferred to foreign capital, originated by S.A. Frigorífico Anglo.

Modernization and efficiency
Using in-depth studies by the engineer Francisco de Monlevade, Inspector General of the company, the latter began the electrification of the lines in 1920, at the voltage of 3 KVCC, extending the use of white coal on the line from Jundiaí to Campinas (1922) and from there to Rio Claro (1926). Aware of Monlevade's maxim that "if they did not electrify their lines, they would not distribute any more dividends", he extended this remarkable improvement from Rio Claro to Rincão (1928) and, in the Jaú branch, from Itirapina to Jaú (1941) and from there to Pederneiras (1947) and Bauru (1948). The limit of this advance was given between Bauru and Cabrália-Paulista in 1954, the year of the delivery of the widening of the gauge in the line from Bauru to Marília. It is worth mentioning that studies pointed to the extension of electrification to Tupã, even indicating that the Piracicaba and Descalvado branches would be electrified, reaching the latter, at least, to Pirassununga Station. The extension of electrification to Garça began but later abandoned, and the other steps were limited to studies.

Companhia Paulista was a pioneer in a series of initiatives in the Brazilian railroad field. It was the first railroad to electrify its lines, to use steel cars to transport passengers (and later build them in its workshops), to foster the creation of protected areas to obtain railroad ties and firewood (through it eucalyptus was introduced in Brazil), as well as other management initiatives previously unheard of in Brazil.

Its passenger trains became famous for the comfort they offered and the punctuality with which they operated. The "R" Train ("R" stands for "rápido", meaning "fast" in Portuguese) or "Blue Train", composed of three-class cars (Pullman, First, and Second Class) and a restaurant, became notorious and determined a standard of comfort not yet seen in Brazil, both in rail (almost extinct) and road transport.

Maintenance
Companhia Paulista had the Jundiaí workshops (dedicated to medium and heavy maintenance of steam, electric, and diesel-electric locomotives) and Rio Claro workshops (directed to the general maintenance of cars and wagons).

Throughout its five divisions, it also had locomotive depots (dedicated to light and medium maintenance of steam, electric, and diesel-electric locomotives), among them the ones in Jundiaí, Campinas, Rio Claro, São Carlos (demolished), Rincão and Bebedouro.

Trade union
The first railroad workers union was founded in the city of São Carlos in 1929, with the name "Sindicato dos Operários Ferroviários da Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro", which later had its headquarters transferred to Campinas.

First strike in Brazil
The union played, however, a role in history long before that, with the first strike in Brazil held in May 1906, after the Labor Day rally at the Polytheama pavilion, which was supported by the weavers of the Fábrica São Bento and the students of the Largo São Francisco Law School, which was harshly repressed.

Decay
In 1961, during an economic crisis aggravated by a series of strikes, the company was nationalized. On November 10, 1971, Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro was incorporated into the new state-owned FEPASA.

Passengers
The number of passengers transported by Companhia Paulista remained in constant growth, except for two periods: 1931-1935 (from the impacts of the 1929 Crisis) and 1956-1970 (when a small variation occurred as a result of a greater competition with road transport, with the opening of highways such as the Anhanguera). Even so, the company maintained an average of 10 million passengers transported each year, with 2 million celebrated as recently as its 50th anniversary in 1918. This steady growth icn the number of passengers can be partially explained by the exemplary operation and maintenance that Companhia Paulista maintained in its network, the absence of the Bandeirantes Highway (opened only in 1978) and the low traffic at Viracopos Airport. The nationalization of the railroad in late 1961 had little or no effect on passenger transportation until the extinction of the company in 1971.

Cargo
Companhia Paulista was created with the purpose of transporting coffee production from the Campinas region to Jundiaí and Paranapiacaba, where the SPR (owner of a railroad transport monopoly) transported the cargo to the port of Santos. With expansion into São Paulo prevented by the SPR, Companhia Paulista was expanding its tracks through the interior on the route to the coffee plantations.

While it was highly profitable, the coffee crop sustained the railroad's expansion and large coffee producers were its major shareholders. With the crises in the international coffee market, the consequent drop in prices forced the company to seek diversification in cargo transportation: grains, wood, cattle, meat, fruits, fuels, etc. To maintain business expansion, it sought loans with banks, issued new shares, and changed its shareholding control: out went the coffee growers, and in came the international banks and trusts.

During the 1940s (affected by World War II), Companhia Paulista practically doubled the volume of cargo transported in relation to the previous decade. This growth in freight transport continued and reached its peak in 1955, when the company achieved its best ever result. Despite a slight fluctuation, the company operated in its final year carrying a significant volume of cargo.

Fleet
Below is a list of locomotives belonging to Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro in 1968.