The Santa Teresa Tram, or Tramway (, ), is a historic tram line in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It connects the city's centre with the primarily residential, inner-city neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, in the hills immediately southwest of downtown, which features the tram in many of its local murals.
It is mainly maintained as a tourist attraction and is nowadays considered a heritage tramway system, having been designated a national historic monument in 1985. The line has a very unusual gauge: . The main line to Dois Irmãos is long,Claydon, G. B.; and Mather, G. (August 1977). "South American Tramways Today / Part 2: Rio de Janeiro". Modern Tramway and Light Rapid Transit magazine (UK), pp. 271–279. Ian Allan Publishing. . but the 2026-reopened section to Silvestre extends it to approximately .
Having run continuously since its opening in 1877 (except for a 2011–15 suspension), it is one of the oldest street railway lines in the world. It has been electrically powered since 1896, being the oldest electric railway in all of Latin America.Morrison, Allen (1 November 2010; later updates). "The Tramways of Latin America in 2015". Retrieved 2015-11-28. For many years it was also the only remaining metropolitan tram system in Brazil. The only other original tram systems in the country to have survived past 1971 are the Campos do Jordão interurban tram/light rail line, which continues to operate today, and the Itatinga line (near Bertioga), a rural and non-public tram line which had ceased operation as a tramway by 2017. All other cities closed their systems by 1971 (Santos being the last), but since that time, three towns, Belém, Campinas and Santos, have reinstated trams as heritage services. Rio de Janeiro opened a modern light rail/tram system in 2016.
All service on the line was suspended starting in August 2011 as a result of a serious accident, but limited service resumed in July 2015 with new tramcars and with passengers no longer allowed to stand on the running boards. Following studies after the 2011 suspension, it was decided to buy new trams that would be replicas of the previous vintage fleet, and an order for 14 such cars was placed in 2012. Rebuilding of the line then commenced, and was continuing in late 2014, at which time reopening was scheduled for 2015, in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In July 2015, limited service resumed between Carioca Station and Largo do Curvelo, and was extended from the latter point to Largo do Guimarães in December 2015, making the length of route in operation about . Service on the Paula Mattos branch remained suspended indefinitely at that time.
The Francisco Muratori branch, which had been abandoned since 1966, reopened in 2016, but is served only by very limited service, with only trips per day as of 2019 and only a single trip per day as of 2024.
Work continued slowly, and at times intermittently, on restoration of additional sections of the main route to Dois Irmãos. In February 2018, just five trips per day were extended from Largo Guimarães to Praça Odylo, and then on 22 October 2018 all service was extended to Largo do França. The full route between Largo da Carioca and Dois Irmãos was finally restored to operation and passenger service in January 2019. Work to reopen the Paula Mattos branch began in 2024, and service on the branch was restored in January 2025. The (5.8 km round trip) section of line between Dois Irmãos and Silvestre, which had been abandoned since 2008, reopened in June 2026. This extension will eventually allow interchange with the Corcovado Rack Railway, once the long-closed Silvestre station on that line has been reopened.
Routes
The Santa Teresa tram route rises from downtown Rio de Janeiro and climbs Santa Teresa hill, offering a high-level view of the city. It passes over the high Carioca Aqueduct, a former aqueduct constructed in 1750 and electric trams used to run beneath it.The Aqueduct. Allen Morrison. 1998. Retrieved 2010-11-15. Except for the section between the central terminus and the initial station (including the aqueduct), the route is shared by motor vehicles.
Before 1964, Rio de Janeiro trams served the entire downtown area and all nearby suburbs, but, after 1967, only the Santa Teresa line remained. Before the system closed in 2011, trams ran from Carioca to Dois Irmãos via Largo dos Guimarães and along a short branch from the latter to Largo das Neves (Paula Mattos). There were also services between Carioca and Silvestre from 1999 to 2008. After reopening in 2015, services were gradually restored along the entire route, including the Paula Mattos branch and, to a limited degree, on the long-abandoned branch to Francisco Muratori.
Current service
Most services run from near Largo da Carioca (in the city centre, at ) to Largo do Guimarães (Santa Teresa cultural center, at ), where the lines branch. The main route continues southwestwards to Dois Irmãos (at the intersection of Rua Almirante Alexandrino with Rua Gomes Lopes, at ) and is long. Four trams per day continue (5.8 km round trip) from there to Silvestre (at ) from 10:00 to 15:00. The other route runs northwest from Largo do Guimarães towards Largo das Neves (). This terminus is indicated as Paula Mattos on the destination signs of the vintage tramcars, though the neighbourhood to which the name refers adopted the modernised spelling of Paula Matos many years ago. Its lengthabout two-thirds of which is shared with the Dois Irmãos routeis . The four daily trips to Silvestre will eventually allow passengers to connect with the Corcovado Rack Railway there, but currently that line has no stop at Silvestre. A station there closed in 1966, and its reopening is planned, but has yet to come to fruition.
As of 2026, the service between Carioca and Dois Irmãos runs every 30 minutes from 08:00 to 18:30 on weekdays, and from 09:00 to 17:00 on weekends and public holidays. The Paula Mattos line runs every hour from 08:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and from 09:00 to 17:00 on weekends and public holidays.
Special service Just one trip per day operates on a route between Carioca terminal and Rua Francisco Muratóri, via the Carioca Aqueduct. This route is long, of which is shared with the main line. The non-shared portion of track is bi-directional single-track. Having closed in 1966, the short branch was reopened in late 2015 and formally "inaugurated" in January 2016, but actual public service was not introduced until sometime later in 2016 and has been very limited and somewhat intermittent since then. In 2018 and 2019, there were two trips per day, departing Carioca at 08:00 and 15:00, but in 2024, the branch was being served by only a single round trip, at 08:30 each day.
History
If horse-drawn tramways are included, trams have operated in Rio de Janeiro since 1859 – continuously, apart from an 1866–1868 suspension. 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).Morrison, Allen (1989). The Tramways of Brazil: A 130-Year Survey, p. 23. Bonde Press. .
Rio de Janeiro's first tramway was a 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 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 November 1866. It was reopened in January 1870, by a different company.
A new horse-drawn tramway 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 the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, 10 km from the city centre.
Another tramway using horse-drawn vehicles, 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 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 .The Santa Teresa Tramway. Allen Morrison. 1998. Retrieved 2010-11-15. 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 and again in 1891, but kept the name Companhia Ferro-Carril Carioca from 1891 until the beginning of 1964.
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 to , 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.