page_title: Rail transport in Brazil
section_title: First railways
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport in Brazil / Tramways / First railways
caption_attribution_description: English: Inauguration of a railroad bridge over the Paraíba river, Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro province, Empire of Brazil, c.1888.
context_page_description: Rail transport in Brazil began in the 19th century and there were many different railway companies. The railways were nationalised under RFFSA in 1957. Between 1999 and 2007, RFFSA was broken up and services are now operated by a variety of private and public operators, including América Latina Logística, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos and SuperVia.
context_section_description: 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, realized the first port-railway operation in Brazil, transporting cargo from the ship Praça XV to Raiz da Serra. The Estrada de Ferro Mauá 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 opening of regular traffic in the first section of The Recife and São Francisco Railway Company, which had 31 km, occurred on 8 February 1858, between Cinco Pontas, in Recife, and the vila do Cabo.  This was the second-ever railway in Brazil, being managed by the first English company that settled in Brazil. The planned construction was only finished in 1862, due to delays caused by a variety problems.
  The inauguration of the first stretch of the Companhia Estrada de Ferro D. Pedro II, 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, 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.
  In 1867, São Paulo Railway Ltd, the first railway built in the state of São Paulo, connecting the Port of Santos with the coffee farms was founded.
  In late 1889, when the republic was proclaimed, there existed in Brazil 9.583 km of active railways, which served 14 of the 20 provinces. With the new republic, the government decided to start a new plan to build railways across Brazil, but few new railways were actually built because of the financial crisis that plagued the new republic.
caption: Inauguration of the bridge over the Rio Paraíba in 1888.
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