Final Days
On March 16, 1957 the company came under the control of Rede Ferroviária Federal S.A. (RFFSA). One of the main consequences was the dividing up of various suburban systems which had been part of the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil, the closure of unprofitable lines and the absorption of some sections into other railways.
With the construction and later doubling of the Presidente Dutra motorway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in 1967 (competing with its most lucrative line), the railway ceased to be a major player, a process aggravated by inefficient administration in the RFFSA and the fact that railway transport had ceased to be a priority of the federal government.
During the petroleum crisis of 1973 there were attempts to modernize passenger transport; like the use of Ganz-Mavag locomotives - the so-called Hungarian train - between 1974 and 1978 in a failed attempt to develop a fast connection between Rio and São Paulo. In 1990 services between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and between São Paulo and Belo Horizonte had all but ceased. There was an attempt to reinstate the Trem de Prata (silver train), a luxury service between the Rio and São Paulo run by a private company which ran for a short while but could not compete with the air and road connections between these two cities. A sparse service continued until 1996 but these were ceased with the privatization of the RFFSA.
Nowadays, the suburban lines of São Paulo are run by Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM) and those of Rio de Janeiro by Supervia. The rest of the network was divided up between 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge (under the responsibility of MRS Logística) and the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metric gauge (under Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica (FCA)).
The name "Central do Brasil" now only exists in the terminal station of SuperVia in Rio de Janeiro. This station was the setting for the film Central Station which was nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar in 1998.
Read more about this topic: Estrada De Ferro Central Do Brasil
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or days:
“The place became full of a watchful intentness now; for when other things sank brooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis—the final overthrow.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)