CEO of VFRGS from 1920 to 1926 and State Secretary for Transport and Public Works from 1926 to 1928, Pestana improved the performance of rail transport in Rio Grande do Sul. Notwithstanding another civil war (the "1923 Revolution"), the number of passengers transported by VFRGS rose from 1.1 million in 1920 to 2 million in 1928, while the freight number rose from 640 thousand metric tons to 1 million metric tons in that same period. Pestana forged an efficient management model for VFRGS that lasted until the acquisition of the company by the Brazilian Federal Railway System ("Rede Ferroviária Federal") in 1959 and the final demise of passenger rail transport in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s.