The Argentine railway network is the system of railway lines in the country, developed primarily between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century alongside the expansion of Argentina's agro-export economic model, through investments from British, French, and national state capital. The network is characterized by the coexistence of different railway gauges, mainly broad, standard, and narrow gauge.
The network reached approximately 38,411 km (23,867 mi) in 1930 and later its historical maximum extent in 1957, with nearly of railway lines, making it one of the largest railway networks in the world at the time. The expansion of road transport and, particularly, the massive closure of railway branch lines during the administrations of Juan Carlos Onganía and Carlos Menem progressively reduced its size and activity.
Currently, it is estimated that around 18,000 km (11,185 mi) remain operational.
Dissatisfied with the private management of the railways, beginning in 2012 and following the Once Tragedy, the national government started to re-nationalise some of the private operators and ceased to renew their contracts. At the same time, Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (SOFSE) was formed to manage the lines which were gradually taken over by the government in this period and Argentina's railways began receiving far greater investment than in previous decades.Resolution 163/2015 – Infoleg Estaciones nuevas y modernas para las lineas metropolitanas – ADIFSE, December 2014Comenzaron a funcionar los nuevos trenes – ADIFSE, November 2014 In 2014, the government also began replacing the long distance rolling stock and rails and ultimately put forward a proposal in 2015 which revived Ferrocarriles Argentinos as Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos later that year.Así es el proyecto que recrea Ferrocarriles Argentinos – EnElSubte, March 2015Otro salto en la recuperación de soberanía – Pagina/12, 16 April 2015Es ley la creación de Ferrocarriles Argentinos – EnElSubte, 15 April 2015Ferrocarriles Argentinos: Randazzo agradeció a la oposición parlamentaria por acompañar en su recuperación – Sala de Prensa de la Republica Argentina, 15 April 2015
Historically, Argentina's national railway system has been organized around six main railway divisions: General Roca, General Mitre, Sarmiento, General San Martín, General Belgrano and General Urquiza.
The railroad network, with its (2018) size, is smaller than it once was, though still the 16th largest in the world,CIA World Factbook – Argentina and the 27th largest in passenger numbers.
History
The growth and decline of the Argentine railways are tied heavily with the history of the country as a whole, reflecting its economic and political situation at numerous points in history, reaching its high point when Argentina ranked among the 10 richest economies in the world (measured in GDP per capita) during the country's Belle Époque and subsequently deteriorating along with the hopes of the prosperity it came so close to achieving.The tragedy of Argentina: A century of decline – The Economist, 14 February 2014
In the early years, the railway was emblematic of the vast waves of European Immigration into the country, with many coming to work on and operate the railways, such as the Italian-Argentine Alfonso Covassi, the country's first engine driver,Breve Historia de los FERROCARRILES ARGENTINOS, su Construcción, su Destrucción, su Importancia, y Proyecto de Recuperación. – Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, 2013, p.6 and also in the sense that the population boom experienced as a result of this immigration required means of transportation to meet growing demands. Much like in the American West, the railways also played a key role in the creation and expansion of new population centres and boomtowns in remote parts of the country.El Ferrocarril en La Argentina – Ferrocarriles del Sud, August 2011
Development
The importance of foreign capital in the construction of the Argentine railways is perhaps overstated,Ferrocarriles Argentinos: una historia de entrega y de luchas – Soy Ferroviario, 2 April 2015. with initial construction of the network beginning in 1855 at first with Argentine finance, which continued throughout the network's development.Breve Reseña – La Fraternidad The first railroad line was opened on August 30, 1857, with the seven-mile line of the Buenos Aires Western Railway (Ferrocaril Oeste). The Buenos Aires Western, Great Western and Great Southern railways (today the part of the San Martín, Sarmiento and Roca railways respectively) were all commenced using Argentine capital with the Buenos Aires Western Railway being the first to open its doors in the country, along with its Del Parque railway station.Los Ferrocarriles: Sus orígenes – TodoTren
Following the adoption of liberal economic policies by president Bartolomé Mitre, these railways were sold off to foreign private interests, consisting of mostly British companies, in what would be the first of many acts where the ideological climate of the time would define the fate of the Argentine railways.Breve Historia de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos – La Gazeta These sales also included Argentina's first railway, the Buenos Aires Western (by now long), which was sold in 1890 to the British company New Western Railway of Buenos Aires for just over 8.1 million pounds (close to £500 million in 2005 moneyCurrency converter – The National Archives).Breve Historia de los FERROCARRILES ARGENTINOS, su Construcción, su Destrucción, su Importancia, y Proyecto de Recuperación. – Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, 2013, p.22 This sale, and others that came after it, was heavily criticised at the time for being far lower than the actual value of the railway, and prompted many anti-British protests. In later years, this was also criticised by historians:
In the years that followed, there were numerous cases of undervalued sales to British investors, including the long Andean Railway, which provoked much anti-British sentiment in the country. By 1910 the network had been monopolised by British companies, owned by large finance firms such as J.S. Morgan & Co. in London. Nevertheless, major development of the Argentine rail network occurred up to this period and the Argentine state also played a large role, financing ferrocarriles de fomento (development railways) in rural areas not attractive to private interests, while the Argentine State Railway had a network.
By 1914, the Argentine rail network attained significant growth having added to the network between 1895 and 1914,Breve historia de los ferrocarriles argentinos: entre la nacionalización y la privatización – Notas, 9 April 2015. which positioned the country as having the tenth largest rail network in the world in that year, at a point where the country had the tenth highest per-capita GDP in the world. Its expansion accelerated greatly due to the need for the transport of agricultural products and cattle in Buenos Aires Province. The rail network converged on the city of Buenos Aires and was a key component in the development of the Argentine economy as it rose to be a leading export country. However, with the advent of the First World War, then subsequently the Wall Street crash and Great Depression, the rail network of the country experienced a much lower rate of growth after this period and had mostly ground to a halt by the beginning of the Second World War.Breve Historia de los FERROCARRILES ARGENTINOS, su Construcción, su Destrucción, su Importancia, y Proyecto de Recuperación. – Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, 2013, p.24Crisis y Nacionalización Ferroviaria. – La Fraternidad
Railroad network growth and expansionJSTOR: The Economic Journal, Vol. 68, No. 271 (Sept. 1958), pp.589–593 – Retrieved on 14 June 2008 Years 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 System length (kilometres) 9.8 722 2,516 9,397 16,500 29,094 47,000 Passengers transported (millions) – – 3 – 18 – 145 Cargo transported (x 1,000,000 tonnes) – – 1.0 – 11.8 – 45.5
Nationalisation
By the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom owed Argentina m$n 2 billion after the country had filled the gaps in food shortages during the war effort.Juan Domingo Perón anuncia la nacionalización de los ferrocarriles "Juan Domingo Perón anuncia la nacionalización de los ferrocarriles.", Argentina.ar, 1 March 2015"1945 Britain – Imperial ambitions of a starving nation" – 2nd Look, December 2009 Following what was then a worldwide trend, the private companies were nationalised by the government of Juan Perón, beginning in 1946 with the French railways and then purchasing the British railways after an agreement was signed cancelling the British debt in 1947.La red ferroviaria argentina – Ministerio de EducacionLos Ferrocarriles: Sus orígenes – Todo Tren Perón later claimed in an interview that the British envoys had offered him a bribe of US$100 million if the state paid an extra m$n 6 billion for the railways on top of the debt cancellation.
Ferrocarriles Argentinos divisions After the 1948 nationalisation, the long Argentine railway network was separated into six divisions managed by State-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos. Of the 20 railways incorporated into Ferrocarriles Argentinos, 7 were Argentine, 10 were British and 3 were French prior to nationalisation. There were grouped together by track gauge and location and named after important figures in Argentine History. Maps of those division companies were as follows:
Soon after the reorganisation, Perón turned it into a political matter with the nationalisation becoming a symbol of national autonomy and independence from foreign powers rather than an administrative change and is still to this day regarded by justicialists as a move against neo-imperialsm.BREVE HISTORIA DE LOS FERROCARRILES ARGENTINOS – La GazetaEl primer objetivo estratégico La Independencia Económica, una de las tres banderas del justicialismo Cuadro de situación financiero en 1946 – Historia del Peronismo Although for many years the state-owned railways were able to provide a good standard of passenger and freight service, over the years the changing politics of Argentina began to take its toll. By the 1960s, the post-war economic boom had ushered in a new age of the automobile, with rail transport on its way out around the world, a trend from which Argentina was not left unscathed.
Following the ousting of Perón from power, the Larkin Plan was implemented to modernise transport in the country with backing from the World Bank and intended to make investments in the country's railways.El plan Larkin y la resistencia obrera – Laguna Paiva However, by 1961 its aims had changed significantly and the plan had evolved into one which prioritised automobile transportation and began lifting sections of railway – an act which was put to an end following a series of strikes by railway workers in opposition to the plan.Historia de los Organismos y Empresas del Estado: Ferrocarriles Argentinos – Ministerio de Planificacion The government favoured road transport and opened car and truck factories in the country. Diesel train shops and new car shops were opened with help from Fiat, Alstom, and Mitsubishi. Steam locomotives were slowly phased out. Later governments between 1967 and 1971 then continued investing in the railways and enacted modernisation plans, renewing much of the rolling stock and the railways continued to function well.El Proceso de Concesión y Desarme de Ferrocarriles Argentinos – La Fraternidad