SOS 24-Hour-Street

The nationally-famous and acclaimed Rua 24 Horas (24-Hour-Street) today, is not the shadow of what it used to be. The place that I saw years ago is gone. It is time for the Urbanização de Curitiba SA (URBS) and city planners to do something to show the world how Curitiba can, again and again, make things happen and re-revitalize the city area where the 24-Hour-Street is located. Curitiba, before global warming, used to be an early-to-bed kind of place and the 24-Hour-Street was one of the first urban pieces of equipment to be thought to take Curitibanos out of bed and into nightlife.

It seems that with success of Curitiba nughtlife many other eating and night-out places started to spring up everywhere and compete for clients. Curitiba now has lots of, hundreds of good restaurants, clubs, discoes, theaters. It is hard to choose. Then, something else happened. The 24-Hour-Street slowly became the center for a mixed clientele of some natives, tourists and travestites, prostitutes and – it is said, drugs and the place acquired a somewhat bad reputation that is still there. But anyway, the Rua 24 Horas is there and worth a visit.

Curitiba's Attractions (The beaten track)

The Official Tourism Line Bus

List of Curitiba’s Attractions visited by the Tourism Line Jardiniera Bus (leaving from Tiradentes Square):

Rua das Flores (Street of the Flowers), Rua 24 Horas (24-Hour Street), Convention Center, Museu Ferroviário (Railway Museum), Teatro Paiol (Gun Powder Depot turned theater), Botanical Garden, Rail-Bus Station and City Market, Teatro Guaíra (Theater) and Paraná Federal University Law School Building, Arab Memorial and the Passeio Público (Public Park), Civic Center, Oscar Niemeyer Museum ( Worth visiting inside and out, project by the architect that designed Brasilia’s buildings), Polish Memorial and Pope’s Woods, German Woods, UNILIVRE – The Environmental Free University, São Lourenço Park (former Glue Factory turned Creativity Center), Wire Opera House, Tangá and Tingüi Parks, Ukrainian Memorial, Italian Portal (Access to the Italian Santa Felicità Area), Barigüi Park and the Telecom Observatation Tower. That is it. The Tourism Bus Line is not a travel agency. It is a city concession to URBS (Curitiba Urbanization) who then passes the right to explore or a permission to an exploring company or a “Permission Holder”. That is it for now but I may describe the attractions with liks as soon as possible.

Curitiba downtown map

This my personal, four-year-old tourist map to downtown Curitiba. I share it with all of you now because I spent a long time never leaving home without it. Ihave had this map since I came to Curitiba to start chasing the history of Jesus Val, a Spaniard who owned land in Paraguay and who also owned the Brazilian side of the Iguassu Falls banks. Map source: former Curitiba Tourism Authority now Curitiba Institute of Tourism. Be back soon!

Chicago's Mayor in Curitiba

Photo by Maurilio Cheli / CSSC

The mayor of Curitiba, Beto Richa received the visit of the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley and wife Maggie Daley. The mayor of the the US city aame to add to the list of international authorities who come to see how the Curitiba Rapid Transit System works. In the photo above, courtesy of the City Sceretary of Social Communication and clicked by photographer Maurílio Cheli, Daley and Richa get off the red double articulated Express Bus. The mayor, wives and URBS president Paulo Scimidt rode the bus from the Santa Candida Terminal to the Holanda Square in the Boa vista area. Later on the mayors visited city parks and the Botanical Gardens. Mr. Daley said that Curitiba's real great contribution is its transport system.

Around Curitiba - On foot to Roça Nova

Photo from the Serra Verde Express, the Train Passenger Concession Holder. This is the railway I will be talking about in this posting. Am I exagerating?

I literally walked to the Roça Nova area of Piraquara. I took the very local integrated bus to Roseira and got off about five kilometers from the Piraquara Bus Terminal on the intersection of the very long Nova Tirol Rural Route (RR – or Estrada or still Rua do Nova Tirol) with the RR Antônio Brudeck. From there I was safely taken to Roça Nova by my map and my feet using my pair of worn Kildare shoes – not walking shoes.

Roça Nova – that means New Clearing – is on the border of Piraquara’s nowhere with the where-in-the-heck-am-I area of the Curitiba Metropolitan Area – CMA or AMC. I have been tempting to think that Roça Nova has about 10 houses on the left side of the tracks and about four or five on the right side of the Paranaguá – Curitiba railroad track. There is also a Pousada nearby but apparently I missed its entrance gate. It is called Pousada Berço das Águas that means Water Cradle. Everything in this area is linked to the water element.

There is no restaurant in Roça Nova. No shop. No café. No bar. There is a Brasil para Cristo (Brazil for Christ) Church though. No where to sleep – except for the Pousada I mentioned above. If the area has a soul it must the train. Mainly cargo trains – several a day. But there is one daily passenger train that passes through and by Roça Nova on its way to Morretes – 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) downhill.

Roça Nova’s most important thing is the tunnel – the first of 13 tunnels that the traveler will meet on the way between Curitiba and the Port City of Paranagua. The 110-kilometer railroad built between 1880 and 1885 is seen as an engineering wonder . But it is between Roça Nova and Morretes – the 23.6-mile stretch – that is responsible for the title of Wonder of Engineering. Besides the 13 tunnels there are 71 bridges to be negotiated by the train driver – is it driver?

I felt a little depressed in the locality of Roça Nova. I had been there one day before with my grandsons. We took the bus circular bus from Piraquara. I never had the intention of getting off there because transportation is limited. There are only three buses to get there and back. 6:30 a.m, 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. The buses do not stop there. So if you go on the 6:30 a.m bus you have to stay there until 12:30 or 6:30 p.m. But on the first trip I took the circular bus was unable to cross the track and complete the circle. There was a long train laying there waiting for the tracks to clear downhill – which means another train was coming up.

I felt bad because the old station has been abondoned. The houses are empty and broken apart. The paint has peeled off. The place looks like a ghost town – on the side of the railway. I am not writing this to make trouble for the Train Company, local authorities or businessmen. I just want so say that there is room for improving the area and helping preserve the railway culture, the railway itself and its way of life and besides that creating wealth or a better survival tool for the local people. I understand that cargo train companies deal with very concrete, serious and dangerous products. The railway is responsibe for taking to the Port of Paranagua most of Brazil’s production of grains, soybeans, oils, fuel, containers and other heavyweights. The tourism “industry” has been associated with “playing” and fun for so long that these companies are not very enthusiat to see drunk tourists crossing train tracks in a place that looks to be firmly rooted in the outreaches of nowhere.

The walk to Roça Nova from the RR Nova Tirol was very interesting. It is scenic. Quiet. Peaceful doted with small properties and trees. I saw good examples of Paraná Pine forests. I even saw a blue jay flying among araucaria trees. Saw hawks and several species of birds. The area is good for bicycling around. Really interesting and highly recommendable. The way back by the RR of the Monkeys (Estrada dos Macacos) seemed to be a little bit more hard pressed by development. There are some larger properties one of which seemed to me to be over manicured and seemingly difficult to keep – must belong to someone with money. Another one brought me back to the harsh reality of the agricultural world – the land had been clearead in order to make way to something that looked like oat to me. I took a picture and shot a little film showing the border between the Aracuaria pines and the bare productive land. This road will cross the track back in a place where development is happening thanks to the poor. River level land is being occupied by shelters, small houses and a new neighborhood is sprouting, Piraquara is sprawling. I was afraid to continue walking. Is it safe? I asked an older lady sitting by one of the new houses. Se said it was OK but suggested that I took a detour through the neighborhood. There is a bus stop right up there. The people I met along the way were nice. I finally boarded the bus coming from São Cristovão for the last kilometers into town. I will go back to Roça Nova these days. But before that I will take the train ride. Cheers!

Bussing around in Curitiba - Part II

Photo of abandoned Tube Station in the TTU of Foz do Iguaçu

Would this work somewhere else?
What I mean here is would the Curitiba Public Bus Transportation System work everywhere. I don’t know. Probably not. I have heard though I can not say what results were that cities like New York and Los Angeles have tested or thouhgt of testing the Curitiba Futuristic Bus Tube Rapid Transit / Transport system or part of the system. Has it worked out there? I think that part of the problem is that is that cities throughout Brazil or even the world adopt part of the system.

One example that I can offer you about a place where the Curitiba Solution was tested twice and did not work is that of Foz do Iguaçu – the city that accidentally came to be a neighbor of the Iguassu Falls – which I have declared as a World Peace and Power Place thus making the city a kind of Guardian of the Falls.

In 1997 the Government of Paraná then under the administration of Architect Jaime Lerner, one of the fathers of the Curitiba Transformation launched something called the World Nature Games (WNG). The WNG were to take place every four years in the West Coast of the State of Paraná – a place he invented and that nowadays it is referred to by this new name. In fact the West Coast included not only the city of Foz do Iguaçu and the Iguassu Falls but also a string of little cities along the Reservoir (called Lake locally) of the Itaipu Dam.

In this process Foz do Iguaçu served partly as a showcase for the “Ligeirinho” (Quickie) Bus and the Tube Stations. One tube station was installed near the City Hall where today is the Secretary of Tourism, the other was stationed in a place (now extinct) called the Foz do Iguaçu Nautical Base. During the games these fast track busway worked perfectly. Another line was created to be international between Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este crossing the International Friendship Bridge. Miraculously the International Quickie Bus Line worked and was able to usher and push people through the border during the games despite the chaos and complete lawlessness of the local international or transboundary traffic. When the games were over, the Quickie Bus Experiment also was. It is said that the State Government offered the tubes and the buses to the city for a price. Don’t ask me what it was. But the mayor of Foz do Iguaçu at the time declined the offer. It is also said heat the mayor lacked the courage to face local bus company owners and line concession holders. One of the particularities of the Curitiba system is that there is only one concessionaire for public transportation. It is the specially created URBS (Urbanization of Curitiba SA / Inc) who then chooses and companies to be permission holders. As of today there are 10 urban permission holders and 18 metropolitan (greater Curutiba) permission holders. Since there is only one concession, lots of troubles are avoided like individual company colors, characterizations and other signs of corporate self.

Things were better in the 2000 – 2004 administration. The mayor of Foz do Iguaçu then a younger men called Samis da Silva was able to introduce part of the system in Foz do Iguaçu, Foz for short and for the friends. In the package he got an Integrated Bus Terminal called Terminal de Transporte Urbano (TTU); was able to create several Quickie Bus lines from the TTU: to the Morumbi district or neighborhood, to the highly populated area of Port Meira (facing Argentina) and maybe a few others. Since day one, the news system faced strong opposition to the system. They were not willing to accept the Integrated Fare (The soul of an Integrated Terminal). They had to surrender on that. They wanted to keep the colors of their buses or the identity of their companies. Tey won that one. They hated the tube stations. And hated to have to buy special buses for the Quickie Lines. They also won that battle. Part of the population also helped sink the project. Many tube stations were taken down, perforated, smashed by hammers, bricks, gun fire and bullets and finally rocks.

The last thing that I knew is that the tubes had been sold, sold back, given away or anything like that. Thus Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil, in the same state as Curitiba rejected the system except the social (not quite), integrated fare and the Terminal though I have noticed that someone is stealing the screws, nuts and bolts of the TTU. I hope it will not fall on people. Next posting: cities that have used part of Curitiba ideas. Cheers!

P.S.: Bogotá, Colombia has implemented a Rapid Bus Transport System called Transmilenio. Check their homepage in English and Spanish

Bussing around in Curitiba - Part I

Bus Terminal in Curitiba

Where? In Curitiba. Brazil has 27 states – so we have 27 state capitals. Curitiba is the capital of the Southern state of Paraná – where I live. There are three Southern states: Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. Beyond RGS is Uruguayland. Curitiba has had all the reason in the world to have remained quiet and unknown. And it was. Until the mid 70s Curitiba was just a city, cold, normal, boring and growing to be chaotic. It was only in 1974 that the city was kicked out of its sleep and into the world arena to the point of having made the front pages of Magazines worldwide like TIME and Newsweek (I think).

You do not have to know this in order to safely take a bus in the city and go anywhere. But it will help to know that every bus moving around in the city has been the result of yers of sticking to intelligent planning – something not so normal in most Brazilian cities. The first thing I would say is, hum, there is a holy trinity to be identified here. The trinity is made up of 1) Type of Road, 2) Type of lines and 3) Bus Model.

The order in the trinity will not affect result so you can take it as you like, you can change it and nothing will happen. Just stick to one order. Let see what happened with trinity member number one: Curitiba Engineers associated with the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento de Curitiba - IPPUC (Curitiba Research and Planning Institute came up with a public transportation system that would be very similar to the subway system but far less expensive and as efficient. First the city was made to fit a four-structural axis: North-South and East –West. Then they tried to find the shortest way between these points and went to work on what they called “busways”. Busways or bus lanes were made and thought for different types of bus lines (here is the second trinity member) that would run on different types of roads (the third member in the city’s engineering holy trinity).

The bus lines they came up with were Express Lines to be attended by Express Buses; Interborough Buses, Feeder Buses and Direct Buses. Let us not leave the tourists out of this planning. There is a Tourist Bus Line operated by a permissionair like all the others.

Express buses are red and run on “bus expressways” with stops at every 400 meter ( about 1.300 feet) and travel from Integrated Terminals to the city center. There are 21 such gated Integrated Terminals – accessible to people coming on buses or those who pass the turnstile to be admitted into and where people can change bus without having to pay an extra fare. More on this later.
Feeder buses are painted orange and operate between Integrated Teminals and the “bairros”, neighborhoods.

Interborough buses are green and serve several “bairros”, without having to go to or through the city center.

The Direct Lines are complimentary lines mainly to interboroughs and express bus lines. They are a silvery gray and tend to stop at every three kilometers. These are the main lines but there are more. I will write about them later on. But I will not keep you from knowing their names: Trunk lines, Conventional Lines, Downtown Circular and three special lines. Namely, the Tourism Line, the Interhospital Line
and something that is very interesting and wise the SITES Line. Sites stand for Sistema Integrado do Ensino Especial (Special Education Itegrated System) which are lines that pick up handicapped students throughout the city and take them to a special terminal. More soon. Cheers. Até lá.

Go to Part II