General Bartolomé Mitre Railway
Mitre Railway | |||
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The General Bartolomé Mitre Railway (FCGBM) (native name: Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre), named after the former Argentine president
The FCGBM incorporated the British-owned 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)
The principal lines departed from
The Ferrocarril Mitre also has a branch that extends from Villa Gobernador Gálvez in Santa Fe Province to Puerto Belgrano, south of the Buenos Aires Province. This branch was part of the Rosario and Puerto Belgrano Railway although it is out of use nowadays.
History
Nationalisation
After the
The following
Ferrocarril Mitre
| |
Former company | Provinces |
---|---|
Central Argentine (1) | Córdoba, Sgo. del Estero, Tucumán
|
Rosario & Pto. Belgrano (2) | Santa Fe, Buenos Aires |
Notes:
- (1) The Central Argentine had previously acquired the BA Northern (1888), BA & Rosario (1902) and Santa Fe Western (1900) railway companies.
- (2) The north section of the R&PBR (from Rosario to Ingeniero Beaugey) only.
Reorganization in Rosario
Soon after the reorganization of the nationalized railway system, the Ferrocarril Mitre closed the
The Rosario Este station was also closed soon after. On the land where it stood, a public park (named "Parque Urquiza") was planted. The Fisherton station was renamed "Antártida Argentina".
In 1977 the most of urban passenger services in the city were cancelled. The Rosario Central station was closed, becoming Rosario Norte the new terminus of the line. Many stations also ceased their activities, such as Antártida Argentina, Barrio Vila, Sarratea, Ludueña and Alberdi. One year later the remaining passenger services were definitely closed.
On November–December 1989 the Ferrocarril Mitre reactivated the Rosario Central station when the Municipality of Rosario launched a passenger service (named "Ferrobús") using the chassis of a
The Buenos Aires section
With the
The
Finally, on November 8, 1961, the Government of Argentina (led by Arturo Frondizi) decided to close the branch from Bartlomé Mitre to Delta. Only some freight trains would sporadically run through those tracks until they disappeared definitely. Since the branch felt into disuse, the railway buildings and lands behind the tracks were illegally usurped by homeless families, while on the other hand, groups of neighbors claimed for the re-establishing of the services.
During the government of Frondizi, the State acquired new electric coaches by Japanese company Toshiba for the rest of Mitre urban lines. Due to the Toshiba wagons had another structure than Metropolitan Vickers', new elevated platforms had to be added to each station to allow passengers to enter the trains.
During this period, the services to
The Buenos Aires-Tucumán express
The Buenos Aires-Tucumán Express was a service that made its first trip in the 1969 after two years working in the maintenance of the infraestructure of the branch. The service joined Buenos Aires and Tucumán taking 15 hours to make 1,156 km between both cities. The service on board included a restaurant, ambient music, air conditioning among other comforts.
The Express was considered one of the most luxurious trains in the world at the time, becoming one of the most emblematic services by Ferrocarriles Argentinos.
Some of the works made that contributed to the success of the Express included 357 km of new
The material used included 3,700 tons of rail tracks produced by local metallurgic company Somisa, 50,000 tons of ballast, 700 tons of metallic accessories and 8,000 protectors for the third rail.[4]
Tren de la Costa
On September 1990 the project to re-open the Mitre-Delta branch was reactivated. Tren de la Costa S.A., a company of local Sociedad Comercial del Plata, owned by Santiago Soldati, won the tender and began the works to reactivate the branch. The company remodeled the 8 stations of the branch and built 3 new stations, most of them with the concept of shopping mall centers, being San Isidro the most representative of this tendence.
A new terminus, named "Maipú" was built just in front of former terminus Bartolomé Mitre. Both stations were connected through a pedestrian bridge over Maipú Avenue. Unlike the Retiro-B. Mitre branch, the new Maipú-Delta service was a light rail system, using two-car train sets acquired to Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).
The service between Maipú-Delta was opened in April 1995.
The project delayed more than a year until on December 7, 1994, the train made its first trip from Delta-Libertador. Then President of Argentina Carlos Menem attended the celebration. The official opening was on April 20, 1995 when the first train departed from new station Maipú to Delta, launching the passenger service 5 days later.
During the first years of existence, the branch carried an average of 100,000 passenger (on weekends) due to it had been conceived as a tourist train, with Maipú, Libertador and San Isidro as its main commercial centres. Beside Delta terminus, a new amusement park, "
Successive economic crashes such as
After a progressive decrease of the number of passengers carried and the closure of most of shops in the stations,[5] The Government of Argentina revoked the concession to SCP, taking over the Tren de la Costa through its subsidiary SOFSE.[6][7]
Suburban services
In the metropolitan sector of the City of Buenos Aires there is an electrified commuter branch that operates from the Retiro terminus in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Retiro, to several suburban locations in Greater Buenos Aires.
When the Government of Argentina decided to
During the first two years of concession, TBA met the requirements specified on the contract, about the frequency of the service, with an average of 98%. By February 1999 the consortium had invested US$200 million, including the reconstruction of 220 Toshiba wagons, the remodelling of 13 stations and workshops. In addition, a new ticket-selling system was introduced with the installation of vending machines.
One of the most notable improvements was the introduction of "Puma" coaches in the Retiro-Tigre branch. This coaches were built by local factory
In 1997 the government decided to modify the contracts of concession with a plan of modernization for US$2,500 million. The future investments required to acquire 492 brand-new electric coaches, refurbishing of more than 100 km of existing tracks, and the installation of new signalling, among other improvements.
Nevertheless, the government of
Due to this politic and the lack of investments in Mitre Line, the quality of the service decreased considerably. TBA operated the line until the
In 2014 the government announced the acquisition of new coaches to replace the existing electric Mitre Line rolling stock. The new trains were manufactured by Chinese company CSR Corporation Limited, the first to arrive in June 2014.[12][13]
Freight services
By the beginning of the 1990s, the economic situation of State-owned Ferrocarriles Argentinos became critical. Through National Decree N° 520/91 the Government of Argentina created residual company FEMESA to run the urban passenger services in Buenos Aires. Ferrocarriles Argentinos continued operating the freight and passenger interurban services.
On March 10, 1993, A new decree by President Carlos Menem established all the passenger interurban railways ceased their activities. The only way to reactivate the lines would be if the provincial governments took over the services.
About the freight services, the government proceeded to tender for the operating of the lines, establishing a fee that consortiums would pay to the Argentine State. Finally, in April 2002 the government awarded private company Nuevo Central Argentino (NCA), formed by local companies Aceitera General Deheza, Banco Francés del Río de la Plata, Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas and Román Marítima, the operation and mainteaneance of Ferrocarril Mitre.
NCA began operating on December 23, 1992, run trains through
At the moment of the beginning of concession, Ferrocarriles Argentinos only run the 45% of the system line because of the terrible deterioration of the tracks or the absence of ballastro that did not allow trains to run. The assets received by NCA included 63
References
- ^ La línea Maipú-Delta, un potencial desaprovechado - EnElSubte, 20 April 2015.
- ^ Retiro-Tigre by Sabrina García on San Fernando Nuestro, 2016
- ^ El servicio de tren eléctrico Mitre-Tigre cumple 100 años: fue el primero de Sudamérica on La Nación, 24 Aug 2016
- ^ Expreso Buenos Aires-Tucumán: Historia
- ^ "Tren de la Costa: la abrupta caída de usuarios precipitó el final de una época de oro", La Nación, 28 Jun 2013
- ^ "Estatizan el Tren de la Costa, terrenos del Parque y dos ramales de cargas ferroviarias", La Nación, 5 June 2013
- ^ "Tren y Parque de la Costa pasan a manos del Estado", Página/12, 5 Jun 2013
- ^ Detalle de los coches Puma en sitio web de EMFER (Archive)
- ^ "Trenes: le dan a Roggio el Mitre y el San Martín y a Emepa, el Roca y el Belgrano Sur", La Nación, 12 Feb 2014
- ^ "Las privadas volverán a operar la mayoría de las líneas ferroviarias", Clarín, 12 February 2014
- ^ "El Gobierno estableció un nuevo régimen de operaciones de las líneas ferroviarias", Telam, 12 Feb 2014
- ^ "CSR fleet enters service in Buenos Aires", Railway Gazette International, 10 June 2013
- ^ "Ya está en viaje la primera de las 25 formaciones para la línea Sarmiento", Telam, 7 Jan 2014