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| Rede Ferroviária Federal S.A. | |
| Company type | State-owned enterprise |
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Genre | Sociedade anônima |
| Founded | March 16, 1957 (1957-03-16) |
| Defunct | December 7, 1999 (1999-12-07) |
| Fate | Extinct |
| Successors | CPTM, SuperVia, CBTU, MRS Logística and others |
| Headquarters | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Area served | South Region, Southeast Region, Central-West Region, Northeast Region |
| Products | Passenger and cargo transportation |
| Owner | Federal government of Brazil |
The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA, pronounced as Refesa) (lit. 'Federal Railroad Network, S.A.') was the State-owned national railway company of Brazil created from Brazilian Federal Law #3.115 on March 16, 1957, after several railroads were nationalized by the Brazilian government. However, the railroad did not take full effect until September 30, 1957. The RFFSA linked 42 railways together (both on documents and actual railroads), creating a regional system composed of 22 railroads. The goal of the RFFSA was to promote and advance the railroad sector of Brazil, creating a north-south-east-west rail network in all five regions of Brazil. But it failed and the RFFSA only served four of the five regions with a north-south rail network win 19 units of the federation of Brazil. By 1999, freight service of the railroad was liquidated and privatized, with the passenger service of the railroad liquidations occurring in 2007.
According to Article 7 of Law #3.115 which created the RFFSA, the company was given the following powers for the operation of the railroads:
The following powers were given to the RFFSA from Law #6.171 in 1974
The twenty-two railways that composed the RFFSA were mostly nationalized by the Brazilian government which chose to merge them administratively.
The following railways were:
The following railroads were later merged into the RFFSA:
Privatization was one of the alternatives for investments to return in railroads. The government of the PSDB gave the public rail lines access to transport cargo. However, most of the railroad companies were not interested in seeing a transport of passengers, as the service was nearly extinct.
Between 1996 and 1998, over 22,000 km of rail lines in Brazil (73% of the entire state rail system) were being transferred to various private organizations, which signed 30-year concessions to operate the railroad systems. The organized private railroad companies will invest $2.1 billion within the 30-year concession as well as increase the volume of traffic, modernize, and expand their railroad systems.
The main goal of privatizing the RFFSA and FEPASA was to end the financial and labor troubles of the railroads, mainly due to a lack of investment by Brazil from the 1980s and the 1990s.
On December 9, 1999, the liquidation of the Ferrovia Paulista S.A. (FEPASA) began as a merger to the RFFSA, and then as an auction in the form of a concession for 20 years. Ferroban was the winner, which has an option to renew the 20-year concession. However, the control was split between América Latina Logística and Brasil Ferrovias.
On December 17, 1999, the liquidation of the RFFSA began by the General Meeting of Shareholders. By May 31, 2007, the liquidation was complete, becoming Brazilian Federal Law #11.483.
From the first appearance of diesel locomotives in 1957 to the adoption of the SIGO System in 1983, the standard colors of the RFFSA were Cadmium Red accented with two Lemon yellow stripes and black undercarriage. Depending on the RFFSA subsidiary that existed, the lower stripe was widened to accommodate the subsidiary's reporting marks. From 1983 until 1996, the RFFSA removed all subsidiary markings and applied the locomotive's number in the same position.
In 1993, the RFFSA held a contest celebrating the presence of diesel traction in Brazil.[1] This contest created a new paint scheme for its locomotives in recognition of the development of Brazil's railway system from the use of diesel locomotives. Held at the D. Pedro II Railway Station in Rio de Janeiro, the contest became a rail festival as it was open to the public with a plethora of support from various sectors of the RFFSA, professional associations, and the railroad's customers.
To participate in this contest, the only requirement was a display board showcasing the new paint scheme design by the participant. The locomotive model chosen as the template for the new paint scheme design was an EVISA GT22CUM-1. When the winning design was selected from the contest, an actual GT22CUM-1 would receive the paint scheme.
On December 6, 1993, Paulo H. S. Cavalieri from Juiz de Fora was declared the winner of the new paint scheme out of 97 participants. Cavalieri was not the first-place winner but was third. RFFSA President Renato Almeida chose Cavalieri's Ash Grey and Lemon Yellow design based on the factors of a good way to promote the company systemwide and the simplicity of cost saving graphics/paint for easy application.
Shortly before an actual GT22CUM-1 was to receive the new paint scheme, the RFFSA management did a final adjustment to the design where a large RFFSA logo was to be applied along the locomotive's carbody instead of Cavlieri's fading strokes version.
On March 2, 1994, EVISA GT22CUM-1 #4605-4L emerged from the workshops of Ponta Grossa with Cavalieri's modified scheme. The locomotive was named Curitiba in honor of the city where the new paint scheme was put into effect on March 1, 1994. Shortly after the 4605-4L was released, any locomotive scheduled for maintenance was to receive the new scheme. Depending on various reasons from the workshops, the locomotives are permitted to be named.[2]
With the paint scheme known to railfans as "Fase II", it was short lived from 1993 to 1996. Although visibility increased from far distances with the yellow, it was flawed with easily becoming dirty after a few months. By late 1995 and into 1996, the RFFSA was heavily in debt to clean or paint a locomotive that most of the grime left the locomotives black.
In contrast to Cavalieri's scheme being selected, the actual winner who won first but was not the selected scheme was Eike Pereira de Souza, an architect from the Department of Auto Graphics of the RFFSA. He won a cash prize of 200,000 Cruzeiros.
The SIGO was a system implemented in 1983 to standardize the numbering system of railway vehicles in Brazil. Each piece of rolling stock is allocated a six-digit number, a check digit, and a letter to indicate its allocation. When the RFFSA began to repaint its locomotives of both Metric and Irish Gauges in Ash Grey and Lemon Yellow (1994–1996), the numbers were relocated towards the radiator section of the locomotive. In some cases, the locomotives were baptized with names, municipalities, states, or cities of there they respectively operated.
With locomotives, the first two digits are hidden, and used only on documents, e.g. 905212-7F.
| Number Series | Type of Locomotive |
|---|---|
| 0001–0100 | Steam locomotives – 760 mm (2 ft 5+15⁄16 in) gauge |
| 0101–0400 | Steam locomotives – 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge |
| 0401–0500 | Steam locomotives – 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge |
| 0401–0500 | Diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm |
| 0751–1000 | Diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm |
| 2001–3000 | GE diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm |
| 3001–4000 | GE diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm |
| 4001–5000 | GM diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm |
| 5001–6000 | GM diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm |
| 6001–7000 | Alco diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm |
| 7001–8000 | Alco diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm |
| 8001–9000 | Electric locomotives – 1,000 mm |
| 9001–9999 | Electric locomotives – 1,600 mm |
Metropolitan transit
Freight services
