Comparative subway study

A number of cities in Brazil have subway systems, and I recently had the pleasure of riding those in Recife and São Paulo.

Recife’s is called TIP, which stands for Terminal Integrado de Passageiros (Integrated Passenger Terminal) and in Portuguese is pronounced “tippy.” The integrated system combines the city’s bus and subway systems with one low fare of R$1.40 (about 60 cents). At the integrated stations, the buses pull into a fenced off section to enable bus passengers to enter the subway without paying an additional fare; subway passengers enter the same area to board the buses. Not all subway stations are integrated, and not all bus routes connect to a subway station. The most interesting thing to me about Recife’s TIP is that each subway stop has a name and a symbol or picture. Like much of Brazil’s north and northeast, there is a large illiterate or semi-literate population, and the name/symbol system lets all people get where they need to go. Most of the names have obvious pictorial connections, such as “Recife” (downtown) and a picture of a city or “Rodoviaria” (bus station) and pictures of buses. But there are a few tricky ones, such as “Wernick.” What the hell is a wernick? Is that someone’s name? Wernick’s symbol is a W, which was a good choice for people who can’t read. I wonder if it is referred to as “lightning” since the W is slightly slanted.

São Paulo’s subway system has the boring name of metrô. The system is much more extensive and has three lines with more on the way. Integrating the bus/subway was one of the few accomplishments of the city’s former mayor, although to my knowledge the metrô does not have the fenced off areas like Recife and uses a single-ticket system where a ride is valid for 2 hours. A trip on the metrô costs R$2.10.