Congressman, Founder of The Railway Company of Rio Grande Do Sul and State Secretary
After a brief period as Director of the Minas Gerais Western Railway Company (Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas), Pestana was elected in 1915 and 1918 to the National Congress of Brazil, representing the RIograndense Republican Party. As a congressman, he advocated new investments in rail transport and criticized the lack of an adequate regulatory framework. In 1920, in a joint effort with the Federal Government, he assured the nationalization of the Belgium-based Compagnie Auxiliaire de Chemins de Fer au Brésil, owned by Percival Farquhar and concessionary of the Riograndense railways since 1905. The Auxiliaire was transformed into the Railway Company of Rio Grande do Sul (VFRGS or Viação Férrea do Rio Grande do Sul), entirely owned by the State Government.
CEO of VFRGS from 1920 to 1926 and State Secretary for Transport and Public Works from 1926 to 1928, Pestana improved the performance of rail transport in Rio Grande do Sul. Notwithstanding another civil war (the "1923 Revolution"), the number of passengers transported by VFRGS rose from 1.1 million in 1920 to 2 million in 1928, while the freight number rose from 640 thousand metric tons to 1 million metric tons in that same period. Pestana forged an efficient management model for VFRGS that lasted until the acquisition of the company by the Brazilian Federal Railway System (Rede Ferroviária Federal) in 1959 and the final demise of passenger rail transport in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s.
Elected again to the National Congress of Brazil on April 28, 1928 and on March 1, 1930, Pestana did not engage in the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 in spite of his friendship and political comradeship with President Getúlio Vargas. His last public task was the modernisation of the Porto Alegre harbor in 1932. Pestana died in Rio de Janeiro on May 29, 1934, after a cancer surgery.
Read more about this topic: Augusto Pestana (politician)
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