Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway

Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway
Rosario Norte Station, terminus, c. 1900.
Overview
Native name	Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Rosario
Type	Regional rail
Status	Company defunct; Railway line active as Ferrocarril Mitre
Termini	Buenos Aires (Retiro) Tucumán
Stations	Rosario (N) Córdoba Sgo. del Estero
Operation
Opened	1874
Closed	1908; 109 years ago (1908) (Acquired by Central Argentine)
Technical
Track gauge	1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)

The Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway (BA&R) was a British-owned railway company that built and operated a 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge railway network in Argentina, where it was known as the "Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Rosario".

By the 1870s, people from Littoral zone that came to Buenos Aires by train, had to navigate on Sarmiento River to Tigre, where the Ferrocarril del Norte de Buenos Aires (FCN) carried them to the centre of the city. Many times the river was not able to be navigated due to lower water levels, leaving passengers waiting for long periods of time.

Guillermo Matti conceived the idea to build a railway that connected Buenos Aires with Campana. In that city passengers could take a boat to Rosario and other cities of Argentine Littoral, saving a considerable navigation time. The new railway would compete with FCN

Three different paths were proposed to build the railway line from Campana:

The third path was finally chosen, therefore on September 10, 1870, the Government of Buenos Aires Province granted Guillermo Matti & Cía. the concession to build and commercialize a railway line from the Port of Campana to Moreno station. But on August 19, 1871, the path was modified through a Provincial Law that stated the line would join Western Railway in Recoleta. This contract was defined on October 6, 1871.

At the end of 1873, "the Buenos Aires and Campana Railway Company Limited" was established in London. On January 19, 1874, the recently formed company signed a contract stating that BA&R perceive a 7% of interest for 20 years.

Works began on October 11, 1872, beginning in the same terminus (Buenos Aires and Campana) simultaneously. Trains departed from Central Station running to Recoleta on other companies' track. From Recoleta the train ran passing the stations of Belgrano, San Martín (where the company had built its workshops and depots), Villa Ballester. From then on, trains ran on about 40 km of wetlands, also crossed by several rivers, Las Conchas River among them. Those obstacles required to build many bridges and two viaducts, one over Las Conchas River and another over Luján River.