Transport in São Paulo

The urban mobility in São Paulo is characterized by a complex transport system, composed of several variables and subsystems. Daily, move into the city individuals from the various municipalities that make up the metropolitan region of São Paulo, so that the issue of mobility in this city necessarily includes the metropolitan and regional scale. In addition, the city is known for the convergence of several state and federal highways, with destinations other than the city, so that the cargo transport systems with different origins and destinations of São Paulo must pass through the city. The transport in São Paulo is commonly called chaotic (title criticized by experts because of the superficiality with which the issue is dealt), one of the main items of political campaign of several major city in times of political elections.

With a fleet of 6 million cars, one of the largest in the world, one of São Paulo's features is the congestion on its main routes. Despite it's lack of infrastructure, public transport, however, plays a key role in day-to-day life of the metropolis. São Paulo has an immense structure of lines of buses, with a fleet of over 16,000 units, under the responsibility of SPTrans. Trains of CPTM, the São Paulo Metro, the EMTU-SP and the system of interconnection between them complete the system of municipal and state transportation in the city.

Intra-City Transport

Buses

The bulk of the public transport in São Paulo is composed of approximately 17,000 buses (including about 210 trolley buses).All lines of buses are operated by concessionaires under the supervision by SPTrans - São Paulo Transporte SA, municipal company planning and management of public transport. The fleet its coloured uniformily according to the non-central region served (ex.: light green for the buses that go South West, dark blue for the Northern area). Until the past few years, there was a strong presence of informal transport vans (dab vans), but the vast majority of such vans are already fully registered with the city council, legalized and operating under the same color scheme of the main system.To assist in the smooth flow of traffic were built throughout the city by bus corridors, tracks that are exclusive use of such transport. Besides the corridors, the city has a system called laparoscopic Expresso Tiradentes, with a considerable expansion already under construction.The payment of passage can be made in cash or by card called Bilhete Único.

Gallery

São Paulo Buses

Rail Transport

Underground and light rail system

The city has 61,3 km of underground railway systems (34.6 km fully underground) (the São Paulo Metro, [ [http://www.metro.sp.gov.br/informacao/mapa/mapadebolsosite2007.pdf Downloadable map (pdf)] of the underground network retrieved from the Metro SP website.] locally known as the Metrô), with 4 lines in operation and 55 stations, complemented by another 261,7 km of Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM, or "Paulista Company of Metropolitan Trains") railways. Both CPTM and the underground railway lines carry some 5 million people on an average weekday, and a few new underground lines to be constructed are expected to add another million people to the system within the next five years. The projects expected to expand São Paulo's urban railway system from the current 323 km to more than 500 km on the next 10 years. [All the main projects from the São Paulo railway and underground system for the next 10 years can be found on the [http://www.metro.sp.gov.br/ingles/index.asp Metrô website] and [http://www.cptm.sp.gov.br/ CPTM (in Portuguese)] .]

São Paulo has three rapid transport systems:
*The underground rail system (called "metrô", short for "metropolitano"), with three complete lines
*The suburban rail system, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), has six lines that serve many regions not reached by the underground system, and even some other cities in the metropolitan region. The CPTM network is longer than the underground rail system.
*The fast-lane bus system: there are many such bus lines in the city, called "Passa Rápido", which are street-level, placed on large avenues, and connected with the underground or suburban train stations.

São Paulo has no tram lines, although trams used to be common in the first half of the 20th century. [For the history of São Paulo tramways, see [http://www.tramz.com/br/tto/6SP1.html Tramz website] ]

São Paulo's underground train system is modern, safe, clean and efficient, considered one of the best subway systems in the world, as certified by the NBR ISO 9001. It has four lines (a fifth, the "Yellow line", is under construction) and links to the metropolitan train network, the CPTM.

The underground rail lines are:

*São Paulo Metro
*Line 1 - Blue: The first Metrô line built connects the North and the South Side of São Paulo. Connections are available for the Green, Red and Yellow lines and also for CPTM trains. Tietê and Jabaquara bus terminals are also reachable through the use of this line.
*Line 2 - Green: The Green line transverses the Avenida Paulista ridge, connecting Ipiranga to Vila Madalena, and also integrating the Blue and Yellow lines.
*Line 3 - Red: One of São Paulo's busiest lines, it connects the East Side to the West Side. Connections to the Blue and Yellow lines are possible, as are with CPTM trains. The Barra Funda bus terminal is located on this line.
*Line 4 - Yellow (under construction): Scheduled to be open in 2009, the Yellow line will connect the central Luz station to the South side in a route constructed immediately below the Consolação and Rebouças avenues. Connections will be available to the Blue, Green and Red lines and to CPTM trains.
*Line 5 - Lilac: Built for users who need to reach specific places in São Paulo's South Side. Only a short distance of the line is already available (six complete stations), connecting to CPTM trains at Santo Amaro station.
*Line 6 - Orange (planned): Announced in 2008 and scheduled to be open in 2012, the Orange Line will connect the borough of Freguesia do Ó, in the northwestern side of the city to downtown São Paulo. It will be connected to the subway lines 1 and 4, as well as the line 7 of CPTM.

*CPTM:The following lines are composed by surface trains and managed by CPTM, named after precious stones:
*Line 7 - Ruby: Formerly the northern part of the ancient São Paulo Railway, it connects the Luz station downtown to the city of Francisco Morato, crossing all of the northwestern side of the city. An operational extension connects Francisco Morato to the city of Jundiaí. This is the longest line of the railway system in São Paulo.

*Line 8 - Diamond: Formerly part of the ancient Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana, it connects the Julio Prestes station downtown to Itapevi, going across the western side of the city. An operational extension with another train links this line to four more stations in Itapevi. The last station (Amador Bueno) is placed near the border with São Roque. The Julio Prestes station houses the State of the Art concert hall Sala Cidade de São Paulo.

*Line 9 - Emerald: It's located along the Nações Unidas Avenue (Marginal Pinheiros), and connects the region of the Interlagos Speedway to the neighbouring city of Osasco. Presently, it makes the only connection with the subway Line 5 - Lilac.

*Line 10 - Turquoise: Formerly the southern part of the ancient São Paulo Railway, it's actually a continuation of the Line 7 - Ruby, and crosses the ABC Region.

*Line 11 - Coral: Also known as "Expresso Leste" (East Express), it crosses all the eastern side of São Paulo from downtown, to Guaianases. It is within the largest distance between two stations (between Tatuapé and Itaquera) in all the railway net. There is an operational extension from Guaianases to the campus of the Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, in the city of Mogi das Cruzes.

*Line 12 - Sapphire: It crosses the northeastern side of São Paulo, from the Brás station downtown until the city of Itaquaquecetuba.

Air

Airports

São Paulo has three airports. There are two major airports in the São Paulo metropolitan area: São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (IATA: GRU) for domestic and international flights and Congonhas (IATA: CGH) for domestic flights. There's also a small airport known as Campo de Marte north of the Old Center for small, private aircraft and helicopters. Campo de Marte also hosts the Ventura Goodyear Blimp.

Congonhas Airport operates domestic and regional flights, mainly to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasília. Campo de Marte airport handles some private and small-sized airplanes. Guarulhos International Airport, also known to São Paulo dwellers as "Cumbica", is located 25 km North East of the city centre, in the neighbouring city of Guarulhos. Guarulhos airport operates both domestic and international flights.

On 2007-07-17 the worst airline accident in Brazil's history occurred at Congonhas airport, blamed on rain and a shortended runway. 199 people from the plane and on the ground died. Following the accident, pilots refused to land under rainy conditions and the Brazilian President signed an act so that ticket sales for flights to the airport be stopped. Aviation throughout the entire country reached a crisis state, which is slowly being overcome by new safety measures such as the introduction of a grooved pavement in the runways.

In 2006, about 34,3 million people went through the city's airports (mainly from Congonhas and Guarulhos International Airport, the only two operating commercial flights). Infraero, Brazil's main aviation authority, estimates that with the remodelling of Guarulhos Airport, São Paulo's airports will be able to handle about 45 million passengers a year within the next five years. There are also plans to expand the Viracopos-Campinas International Airport at Campinas, a city about 90 km North of São Paulo.

São Paulo has allegedly one of the highest per capita helicopter ownership in the world. The owners are an elite wealthy class who take advantage of around one hundred helipads and heliports to conveniently avoid heavy traffic.

Main Brazilian Airlines

*TAM Airlines
*Gol Transportes Aéreos
*Varig
*OceanAir

Heliports

São Paulo has the second largest fleet of helicopters in the world, losing only to New York, are 420 helicopters in the city vehicle. Modern is one of the symbols of the so-called top of the circle makes the mainland economy and faster, being increasingly used by the richest of the city to escape major congestion. There are 260 heliports in São Paulo.There are many companies of aerio taxi in the city, more used by executives to travel in the fast axis Rio-São Paulo.

Mortorways

Roads

For the city spend some of the Brazilian roads, as the BR-116, the Rodovia dos Bandeirantes the Rodovia Raposo Tavares, the Rodovia Anhangüera, the Route of the Rodovia dos Imigrantes the Rodovia Castelo Branco and Via Dutra.

Rodoanel

The Rodoanel Mario Covas (SP-21) (also known as Rodoanel Metropolitano de São Paulo or simply Rodoanel) is a motorway being built around the center of the metropolitan region of São Paulo in an attempt to alleviate the intense traffic of trucks in the two marginal routes of the city (Pinheiros and Tietê), which reflects the urban traffic is causing a serious congestion monstrous.

It is planned as an access road restricted, with large sections to be empty or filled with woods, near residential areas in their surroundings, seeking to prevent the occupation of the areas lindeiras. Nevertheless, the mere presence of Rodoanel provoked an intense movement of property speculation in these regions. His execution was divided into four sections, west, south, east and north. Only the West sentence was completed so far. The southern stretch is under construction.Currently the Rodoanel is not pedagiado, but with the granting of passage west held in March 2008, the start of the operation of tolls is planned for November or December of that year. The project envisages setting up booths at the exits of charging for roads, so that users pay the fee once.

Roads Interconnected

References