Rail transport in Argentina
| Argentina | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation | |||||
| National railway | Ferrocarriles Argentinos | ||||
| Infrastructure company | ADIFSE | ||||
| System length | |||||
| Total | 36,966 km (22,970 mi) (8th) | ||||
| Track gauge | |||||
| 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) | 26,475 km (16,451 mi) | ||||
| 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) | 2,780 km (1,730 mi) | ||||
| 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) | 7,711 km (4,791 mi) | ||||
| Secondary narrow gauges | 424 km (263 mi) | ||||
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| Map | |
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Argentina's rail network at its greatest extent (c.1950).
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The Argentine railway network consisted of a 47,000 km (29,204 mi) network at the end of the Second World War and was, in its time, one of the most extensive and prosperous in the world. However, with the increase in highway construction, there followed a sharp decline in railway profitability, leading to the break-up in 1993 of Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA), the state railroad corporation. During the period following privatisation, private and provincial railway companies were created and resurrected some of the major passenger routes that FA once operated.
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. 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.
The railroad network today, with its 36,966 km (22,970 mi) size, is now somewhat smaller than it once was, though still the 8th largest in the world.
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 largest economies in the world during the country's Belle Époque and subsequently deteriorating along with the hopes of the prosperity it came so close to achieving.
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, 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.
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Wikipedia