About this journey

Contagem station stands at the western edge of Greater Belo Horizonte, within a city whose industrial district was inaugurated in 1941 and grew into the largest industrial hub in Minas Gerais. From here the journey follows the Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas — the EFVM — northward and eastward toward Venda Nova. The railway was created by decree-law in February 1902, with its first stretch opening on 13 May 1904. Its original purpose was to move coffee out of the Vale do Rio Doce, but from 1908 onward the priority shifted to iron ore.

The EFVM is a metric-gauge line, with track gauge of 1,000 mm and a maximum permitted speed of up to 67 km/h. Today the line extends 905 km in total and is managed by Vale S.A., which was established in 1942 under the Washington Accords to oversee iron ore exports. For passengers the active corridor spans 664 km, serving 30 embarkation points across 42 municipalities. The fleet seen on this run dates from August 2014, when new carriages purchased in Romania replaced the older rolling stock, bringing air conditioning, automatic doors with presence sensors, and a wheelchair-accessible carriage. The Train series 900 covers the Contagem–Venda Nova segment through terrain the EFVM has threaded for well over a century.