200 Series (Buenos Aires Underground)

200 Series
A 200 Series train at San Pedrito
Manufacturer	China CNR Corporation CITIC Construction
Constructed	2012-2015
Entered service	2013
Number built	150
Number in service	55+
Formation	3M+2T
Capacity	1,148 (seated)
Operator(s)	Buenos Aires Underground
Line(s) served
Specifications
Car body construction	Stainless steel
Doors	4 per side
Maximum speed	80 km/h
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)

The 200 Series is a set of underground cars manufactured by China CNR Corporation and CITIC Construction for use on Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground in Argentina. The cars were made in order to replace the 100-year-old La Brugeoise cars which operated on the line up until 2013. The Buenos Aires Underground ordered 45 of these units, followed by a further 105 which are currently being integrated into the line.

Since the opening of Line A in 1913, it had used the same La Brugeoise et Nicaise et Delcuve rolling stock (along with a small number of UEC Preston cars at one point). Over the years, numerous attempts were made at replacing the rolling stock on the line, though this proved challenging due to its tight curves and use of 1100 volt current instead of the 1500 volts used on the rest of the network.

One such attempt was the Alstom Metropolis cars purchased at the turn of the 21st century, however these ultimately ended up serving on Line D. Before then, an attempt at creating a single, standardised rolling stock model for the entire network had been made in the 1980s in the form of the Fiat-Materfer cars produced in Argentina, which had also been designed to easily switch from 1500v to 1100v with Line A in mind. The Materfer cars also didn't make it to Line A at their time of production, though some are used on the line today as stand-ins for the C200 Series units which are yet to arrive from China.

In 2008, 45 of the CITIC-CNR cars (tailor-made for Line A) were ordered by the National Government for the network at a cost of $3 million per car. However, this was still short of the 120 La Brugeoise cars operating on the line at that point and the addition of Puán and Carabobo stations in 2008 meant that the rolling stock was already stretched to full capacity. Furthermore, the opening of San José de Flores and San Pedrito stations was planned for 2013, which was also the date the CITIC-CNR trains were set to arrive along with the retirement of the La Brugeoise cars.