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.
History
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 , 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.