Railway Privatisation in Argentina

Railway privatisation in Argentina was a process which began in 1993 under the presidency of Carlos Menem, following a series of neoliberal economic reforms. This primarily consisted of breaking-up the state-owned railway company Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA) and allowing the former lines to be operated by private companies instead of the state. This policy was met with widespread criticism and proved catastrophic for the Argentine railways whose service worsened significantly in the years that followed, with entire lines closing and infrastructure deteriorating beyond repair. Privatisation was ultimately reversed in 2015 with the creation of Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos.

Since railway nationalisation in 1948, during the presidency of Juan Perón, the network had been operated by the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA) which comprised the six relatively independent divisions, Sarmiento, Mitre, Urquiza, San Martín, Belgrano and Roca.

By the time that President Carlos Menem's administration took over the Government in 1989 FA had a serious economic deficit, with no investment projected and a high amount of social charges owed to the state. The amount of freight services had considerably decreased between 1970 and 1990, going from 13,500 million of tons to 7,500 millions twenty years after (almost a 55%). The infrastructure and rolling stock were seriously deteriorated, with the exception of central network. Most part of locomotives and coaches had become obsolete therefore the costs of mainteanance had also increased. The aim was to reduce FA's deficit previous to a major restructuring of the company.

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