History
If horse-drawn tramways are included, trams have operated in Rio de Janeiro continuously since 1859. There are only four cities in the world in which trams have run longer: New Orleans (since 1835), Boston (1856), Mexico City and Philadelphia (both 1858).
Rio de Janeiro's first tramway was a 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) horsecar line on which service was inaugurated on 30 January 1859 (testing began in 1858). Constructed by Thomas Cochrane and operated by the Companhia de Carris de Ferro da Cidade a Tijuca, the service ran between the city centre and Tijuca. In 1862 steam trams replaced the horsecars, making the Tijuca line the first steam-powered tramway in South America, but the higher speed and poor condition of the track led to many derailments and the line was closed in 1866. It was reopened in 1870, by a different company.
A new horse-drawn tram was built in 1868 by Charles B. Greenough, and a service running from Rua do Ouvidor to Largo do Machado commenced on 9 October, extended to Botafogo six weeks later. By January 1871, the line had reached Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, 10 km from the city centre.
Another horse-drawn tram, constructed by Albert H. Hager and run by the Rio de Janeiro Street Railway, opened on 25 November 1869. The first route ran to the palace grounds at Quinta da Boa Vista, with routes to Caju and São Cristóvão following later.
In 1870 the Rio de Janeiro Street Railway (soon to be renamed the Companhia de São Cristóvão) reopened the route of Cochrane's pioneer tramway to Tijuca. A new horse-drawn tram, constructed by João Batista Viana Drummond and run by the Companhia Ferro-Carril da Vila Isabel, opened in 1873. Further routes were opened to the Vila Isabel zoo, Engenho Novo, Méier, and the suburbs along the Dom Pedro II Railroad on the northwest side of town. The Ferro-Carril de Jacarepaguá company opened a new line in 1875, running from the Dom Pedro II Railroad's Cascadura station to Taquara and Freguesia.
In name only, the Santa Teresa tramway's first horse-drawn line, operated by Empreza de Carris de Ferro de Santa Theresa, opened in the same year of 1875, but served only the flat terrain within the city centre, not actually serving any of the Santa Teresa neighbourhood (or any part of the line that survives today); it was 820 mm (2.69 ft) gauge. The same company built both a funicular (513 m long) to take passengers from the city centre up to Santa Teresa hill, and a separate hilltop tram line which started at the top of the funicular. The hilltop Santa Teresa tramway, the predecessor of the current line, opened on 13 March 1877, with a gauge of 914 mm (3.0 ft). It ran from the funicular station east to Curvelo and west to Largo do França. This main Santa Teresa line was extended from Largo do França to Silvestre in 1890. The operating company's name changed in 1885, 1887 and 1891, but kept the name Companhia Ferro-Carril Carioca from 1891 until 1960.
Meanwhile, steam trams were reintroduced to Rio in 1882, this time on the Tijuca line, operated by the São Cristóvão tramway company.
1892 saw the arrival of the first electric tram, on the Botanical Garden route. This was the first electrified street railway in all of Latin America, aside from a tram line that was extended in 1890 from Laredo, Texas, into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (barely onto Latin American soil). It was quickly followed by other electric tram lines in Rio, including a Rua do Catete service in 1894 and two new lines in Flamengo in 1896.
In 1896 electric trams replaced the horsecars on the Santa Teresa line, and the line was extended across the then-abandoned aqueduct between Santa Teresa and Santo Antonio hills (the Carioca Aqueduct), with the city terminus uniquely being built on the second floor of the company's office building on Largo da Carioca. During this rebuilding, the line's gauge was changed from 914 mm to 1,100 mm, which it retains to the present day. The Santa Teresa system's electrification was completed in 1897.
By 1897 the Carioca railway had been completely electrified, making it the first totally electric tram system in South America. Electrification expanded rapidly over the next few decades, and by 1928 the last horse-drawn trams had been withdrawn from service.
From around the 1950s, the Rio de Janeiro tram system went into decline, with many lines being closed, and by the end of the decade most of the tram routes of the former São Cristóvão system had gone.
Closures continued through the 1960s, with the closure of the Alto da Boa Vista route in 1967, leaving only the Santa Teresa tram still running. The Silvestre Line had been cut back to Dois Irmãos in 1966; the section beyond was abandoned following storm damage.
The Santa Teresa tram moved to its new modern terminal in 1975, in the gardens of the Petrobrás oil company, located on the roof of the company's parking garage. This was the Santa Teresa line's sixth successive city-centre terminus; it remains the system's terminal today. The system is currently operated by the Companhia Estadual de Engenharia de Transportes e Logística.
Read more about this topic: Santa Teresa Tram
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