The Buenos Aires Underground has one of the most diverse metro fleets in the world, and has had some of the oldest models in operation on any network. The network began with a relatively standardised fleet, but throughout its over 100-year-long history, it has seen numerous purchases which have created cases where some lines operate numerous models. Recently there have been increased efforts to modernise and standardise the fleets, with large purchases from China CNR Corporation and Alstom.

History

Before the nationalisation of the railways and the formation of Subterráneos de Buenos Aires, the original lines of Buenos Aires Underground were built by three private companies, and each bought different rolling stock for their lines.

Line A was inaugurated in 1913 by the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company (AATC)—then owned by the Belgian company Sofina—who owned the vast majority of the city's tramways at that point. Two companies competed to provide the rolling stock of the line: the Belgian La Brugeoise et Nivelles and British United Electric Car Company, with the Belgian company ultimately winning the contract.Fin de la espera: esta semana, el subte llegará al centro de Flores - La Nacion, 23 September 2013. However 4 UEC Preston cars had been sent to the country and these more extravagant cars were kept in service on the line until the 1970s and were often used on special occasions.Los viejos vagones del subte A realizarán viajes turísticos - InfoBAE, 3 September 2013. The Brugeoise cars made up the entirety of the rolling stock of the line until 2013, retiring just before their 100-year anniversary.Coches históricos de la Línea A se donarán a museos y universidades - Perfil, 14 August 2015.

The Argentine company Lacroze Hermanos built Line B, originally designed to be an underground continuation of the Buenos Aires Central Tramway (today the Urquiza Line). The line has historically been significantly different from the others in terms of rolling stock since it uses third rail electrification instead of overhead lines and as such, it has been the most troublesome to standardise and has often had the most diverse rolling stock, with four different models circulating on its tracks at one point. Originally served by Metropolitan-Cammell cars from its opening in 1930, these were later reinforced by cars from the Osgood Bradley Car Company in the 1950s. Later on, two attempts were made by the state-owned Fabricaciones Militares to replace the rolling stock of the line, however these were never produced in enough numbers to replace all the cars on the line. It was only in 1996 that the line was standardised again when cars were bought second-hand from the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line in order to replace all the cars. This was also the first time in the history of the network that cars were bought second-hand.

Lines C, D and E were all built by the Hispanic-Argentine Company for Public Works and Finances (CHADOPyF) in the 1930s and 1940s and were thus the most straightforward. All the lines used German Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock from their inaugurations, though during the 1960s Spanish-built CAF-General Electrica Española were added to the lines. The CAF-GEE cars were designed to be highly compatible with the Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars in order to reduce maintenance costs.Línea E: 70 años buscando pasajeros - EnElSubte, 20 June 2014.Línea D - Buenos Aires Ciudad.Línea E - Buenos Aires Ciudad. It was only in the 1980s that the rolling stock started to diversify on these lines when Fiat-Materfer cars began to be introduced in order to standardise all the lines of the network (with the exception of Line B) using this rolling stock, however not enough of these were built to replace the Brugeoise, CAF and Siemens cars, so the ended up being spread thinly and switched between lines as temporary stock since their introduction.

The standardisation across lines was further reduced following privatisation in the 1990s when more attempts were made to replace the ageing Brugeoise and Siemens stocks with second hand purchases from Japan and the incorporation of the new Alstom Metropolis 100 Series rolling stock, none of which were purchased in enough numbers to make up the entirety of a line, let alone multiple lines on the network. Only in 2010s were there moves towards re-standardising and modernising the fleet whilst retiring the ageing trains which had served since the opening of each respective line. Numerous purchases of new rolling stock have been made, along with the purchase of second hand rolling stock which the City Government claims is a necessity given the need to quickly incorporate trains in lines with rolling stock deficits.

Historical fleet Model Photo Years active Country Purchased New Cars built/purchased Former Lines La Brugeoise 1913–2013 Yes 125 UEC PrestonExhibieron la dupla histórica Preston para festejar el Bicentenario - EnElSubte, 26 May 2010. 1913–1977 Yes 4 Metropolitan Cammell 1930–1996 Yes 56 Osgood-Bradley 1931–1996 Yes 20 Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & KoppelSubte: Remodelarán otros 40 coches Siemens - Taringa!, 19 November 2013. 1934–2016 Yes 13 + 3 scrapped during construction Fabricaciones Militares http://busarg.com.ar/fotogaleria/albums/userpics/35995.jpg 1965–1996 Yes 14 Siemens-Fabricaciones MilitaresLa accidentada historia de los Siemens-FM - EnElSubte, 30 January 2014 1977–1996 Yes 18 Siemens-Emepa-AlstomTrasladan Siemens para reformar a los talleres de Emepa en Pérez - EnElSubte, 16 December 2013.Vidal hace campaña con trenes de 1930 y miente sobre incorporación de coches - EnElSubte, 15 July 2015. 2010–2017 Refurbished 50 CAF 5000Metro de Madrid ya había ofrecido los CAF 5000 al Subte en los años 80 - EnElSubte, 8 Julio 2014 2013–2018 No 36 Nagoya 250/300/1200 Series 1999–2020 No 78 CAF/General Eléctrica EspañolaSubte: 100 años avanzando - Buenos Aires Ciudad, 29 November 2013. 1964–2020 Yes 56

Preservation The original La Brugeoise rolling stock has been maintained, some as exhibits and some being converted to 1500V to run tourist services on the line.Realizan pruebas con Brugeoise reconvertidos a 1500 V en la línea A - EnElSubte, July 2014 In December 2013 a law was passed which meant that the entire La Brugeoise fleet would receive protection status and would thus only be donated to organisations dedicated to their restoration and preservation.Aprueban protección para todos los coches La Brugeoise - EnElSubte, 6 December 2013. The three surviving UEC Preston cars serve on the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway above-ground in the neighbourhood of Caballito. Two Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel also have been donated to the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway, but the fate of the rest of the fleet is still unclear.

On 1 February 2018, the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway received a donation from SBASE consisting of a Metropolitan Cammell and a Siemens-Fabricaciones Militares.

Current fleet Rolling stock of the Buenos Aires Underground (may not be current for all models).

Model Photo Years active Country Purchased New Cars built/purchased Cars in operation Former Lines Current Lines Fiat-Materfer 1980–present Yes 105 20 Metrovías oficializa quita de formaciones - EnElSubte, 4 June 2013. MaterferEl plan de SBASE para el Premetro - EnElSubte, 8 September 2014. 1988–present Yes 17 13 Mitsubishi Eidan 500 series 1996–present No 128 96 Nagoya 5000 Series 2015–present No 30 30 100 SeriesFinalizó la entrega de los Alstom Metrópolis - EnElSubte, 9 March 2009. 2001–present Yes 96 96 200 Series 2013–present Yes 150 150 (105) (45) CAF 6000Bochorno: los trenes usados de la B ya costaron más que comprar 0 km - EnElSubte, 30 June 2015. 2015–present No 72 72 300 SeriesSBASE anuncia nuevos coches con foto del Metro de San Pablo - EnElSubte, 21 January 2014.Llegaron al país seis coches nuevos con aire acondicionado para la línea H - La Nacion, 27 August 2015.Plan de modernización del Subterráneo de Buenos Aires - Buenos Aires Ciudad, September 2015. 2016-Present Yes 180 162(being phased-in) Green = current, Blue = future, Yellow = being phased-out.

Lines In the mid-2010s, the Underground was in a transitional period where temporary rolling stock was serving on numerous lines while orders arrived from China and Brazil. After these cars arrived in 2015 and 2016, the network had a far less diverse rolling stock, with Line A being composed entirely of CITIC-CNR trains, while lines D and H were made up entirely of Alstom Metropolis trains. The older Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars were completely retired from the network, thus reducing the average age of the rolling stock significantly. With this move towards standardisation, some of the newer trains have received series numbers: the original Alstom Metropolis trains on Line D have been dubbed the 100 Series, the CITIC-CNR trains are the 200 Series, while the newer Alstom Metropolis trains for lines H and D are the 300 Series.Descargan primera formación Alstom en el Taller Colonia - EnElSubte, 27 August 2015.

Line B are composed of CAF cars purchased from the Madrid Metro while retiring the Eidan 500 cars. Line C is using a variety of Nagoya cars, while Line E is using Fiat-Materfer cars and refurbished Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars, retiring the CAF/GEE cars. No plans have been made public about the long-term intentions with these lines, though Line C has received a modern communications-based train control system in preparation for newer rolling stock.Siemens modernizará las señales de la línea C - EnElSubte, October 2014. It has not been stated what rolling stock will be used on Line F, though the usage of platform screen doors on the line will require modern rolling stock and automated trains are being considered.Confirman proyecto para desviar la línea F a Facultad de Derecho - EnElSubte, 25 November 2014.

Line A

Until 2013, Line A had been served by La Brugeoise cars and a small number UEC Preston cars, which were retired prior to the Brugeoise cars. These were withdrawn from service on 12 January 2013, 11 months before their 100th anniversary and replaced by 45 new 200 Series cars built by China CNR Corporation. Preadjudican 105 coches a CNR para la línea A - EnElSubte, May 2013 However, the Chinese cars were not sufficient to cover the entire fleet of the line, so it had to be supplemented by a temporary fleet of 35 Fiat-Materfer cars, which was still not enough to replace the 120 La Brugeoise units and thus Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel stock reformed by the Emepa Group was also added to the line to make up the numbers.SBASE reconoce que la frecuencia de la línea A es "inadmisible" - EnElSubte, 5 March 2014. Furthermore, the replacement of the rolling stock coincided with the opening of the San José de Flores and San Pedrito stations and the line was still left with a rolling stock defect, causing a decline in passenger numbers.Embarcaron primeros dos trenes de la segunda tanda de CNR - EnElSubte, 4 February 2015.

A further 105 CNR cars were ordered in 2014 so that the line would be served in its entirety by 150 of these 200 Series cars, and so the temporary replacement rolling stock could be moved to Line E in time for its extension to Retiro.Hacienda aprueba contrato de financiamiento para 105 coches CNR - EnElSubte, 24 July 2014. The cars steadily arrived into the country since 2015 and have been incorporated into the line, with the last of the CNR units arriving during 2016 and 2017. Line A's rolling stock now consists entirely of these models.Incorporarán nuevos trenes a la línea A: realizan pruebas - EnElSubte, 5 June 2015.

Line B