Left: The lonely tracks, Diego Torres Silvestre, CC BY 2.0 Right: The heroes of Paranapiacaba, Mike Peel, CC-BY-SA-4.0
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.
As a district of the municipality of Santo André located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, Paranapiacaba roughly translated means – from Tupi (extinct Tupian language) – where you will find the sea. It was founded by the British-owned São Paulo Railway Company.
The British constructed a form of a zigzag railway line in the local terrain that during its existence was considered a masterpiece of design and work by the British engineers and workers at that time. The number one reason why this railroad was built happens to be coffee beans.
During its best years, the town was a place some 4,000 people (British engineers and workers with their families) called home.
The British clock tower. Photo Credit: Diego Torres Silvestre, CC BY 2.0
The town itself was built when the need for a railway sprang up, and so Paranapiacaba came to exist together with the local railroad that transported the coffee beans to the port Santos.
Everything was going according to the plan until some 30 years later when the thirst of man for innovation and prosperity finally caught up with the town.
The old funicular (it dates back to the 19th century), which was labor-intensive got replaced with automated machinery. As a result, the village residents given the fact that they were unemployed came to a conclusion that leaving the village was the only alternative at that moment. And so a part of the village slowly started to become depopulated as the residents started to leave.
Train tracks fading into history. Photo Credit: Priscila Darre, CC BY-SA 2.0
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The History Of Coffee in Brazil: A Visit To The Coffee Museum
Source: https://travelwritingpro.com/the-history-of-coffee-in-brazil-a-visit-to-the-coffee-museum/
Coffee speaks so much about the Brazilian culture and history. It doesn’t matter whether a person lives in the slums or at an exclusive neighborhood of Brazil. There is always a cup of coffee to go to in the morning or late in the night. Coffee has brought wealth to the nation and has formed a way of life for its people.
It is not native to Brazil. Coffee was brought in to Bethlehem, Northern Brazil by Francisco de Mello Reed in 1727 from French Guiana when coffee was at its peak as a commercial commodity. He brought in a small amount of Arabica coffee and cultivated them in North Brazil, which has similar weather as French Guiana. Soon coffee plantations were spread throughout Brazil particularly to Maranhao, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana and Minas Gerais. It became the most important commodity for Brazil’s economy by 1779 when the first shipment of coffee was sent overseas. (Source: ABIC.com.br)
Coffee brought wealth and development in Brazil. One such place was Santos. Santos’ location and port was an ideal place for coffee plantations and coffee trade. Brazil’s wealth increased for over a century because of coffee. Nearby cities like Sao Paulo, Minas and Parana began to emerge. In the beginning animal transportation was used. When railways were introduced in Europe and North America, railways were built in Brazil to support more production and transportation of coffee.
Pack mules transporting coffee beans
Immigrants arriving by train
Immigrants were brought into the country to work in coffee plantations and Santos flourished. In 1922 the city opened The Coffee Exchange Palace (Bolsa de Café) as part of the centennial celebrations of the Independence of Brazil. The buildings main room, the Trading Room is richly decorated with stained glass ceilings by artist and historian Benedicto Calixto. This was the room where negotiations for coffee took place. The room’s three huge paintings were also Benedicto Calixto’s artwork depicting life in Santos in the 1500s, before the coffee era and after coffee was introduced.
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Brazil’s rail freight network: fast track to nowhere?
Decades of mismanagement and underinvestment have left Brazil’s freight rail network creaking and often disused, squandering the potential economic benefits for a country focused on exports. What has led to this situation, and how can the Brazilian Government dig its way out of an infrastructure crisis?
Nestled amid the Serra do Mar coastal forests in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, the village of Paranapiacaba plays host to a railway ghost. The village was built in the mid-19th century as a company town by British-owned São Paulo Railway Company, serving as a rail station and accommodation hub for workers on the railway, which was primarily used to carry coffee from the interior to the seaport at Santos.
Having been made obsolete by new technology and sent into decline through the 20th century, the Paranapiacaba rail station today lies in ruins, an eerily decayed site of historical interest. Both in its current ruined form and its Victorian heyday – when it was considered a feat of engineering for zig-zagging across steep jungle slopes – the São Paulo Railway draws interesting comparisons with Brazil’s modern-day rail freight system, which, despite billions in investment and decades of development, is still struggling to deliver the economic benefits it promises, and in some places approaches Paranapiacaba in its neglect and disuse.
Given Brazil’s sheer size – at around 8.5 million square kilometres it is the world’s fifth-largest nation, just behind China – the potential benefits of a reliable, well-implemented rail cargo network have been clear for decades. But for years, project mismanagement has held back the development of a network that properly serves Brazilian businesses, creating a legacy that has seen railways sidelined among the country’s transport infrastructure, with an over-reliance on roads to keep freight moving.
Brazilian railways: decades of disrepair
In late May, Brazil’s economic reliance on its roads was thrown into sharp relief when a 10-day nationwide strike and blockade by truck drivers over fuel prices brought the supply chain to a standstill. The impact of the strike, which has been estimated to have cost the shipping industry between $5bn and $15bn in lost revenues, was exacerbated by a lack of alternative rail routes for moving goods.
According to estimates, just over 20% of Brazil’s total cargo is carried by rail, with 63% transported by highways. Freight rail is dominated by the transport of raw materials, primarily iron ore and agricultural produce such as soy and corn. In terms of containerised cargo, Brazil’s railways are even more marginalised, with just 3%-4% of cargo containers moved by rail; the federal government has an aim to increase this share to 20%. With the higher costs and potential for delays involved with hauling freight by truck, a broad transition of investment towards rail freight is badly needed.
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