Premetro (Buenos Aires)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the modern tram system in Buenos Aires. For the city's historic tram system, see Trams in Buenos Aires.
Catenary, 750 V DC[1]
Route diagram

 Intendente Saguier
Balbastro
Mariano Acosta
Somellera
Workshops
 Ana María Janer
Fátima
Fernández de la Cruz
Presidente Illia
Belgrano Sur Line
Belgrano Sur Line
 Parque de la Ciudad
Cecilia Grierson
Escalada
Pola
Ana Díaz
Centro Cívico
Larrazábal
 Nicolás Descalzi
Gabino Ezeiza
General Savio
This diagram:

The Premetro is a 7.4-kilometer long (4.6 mi)

line E, at Plaza de los Virreyes station and then to General Savio, with a short branch to Centro Cívico. It opened in 1987 and is operated by Metrovías. Originally, the Premetro was to include many more lines, but shortly after the privatisation of the railways the projects were postponed and never materialised and only "Premetro E2" was built.[4]

History

Line E2

Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway
.
Plaza de los Virreyes
.
Intendente Saguier
terminal following refurbishment.

The line opened in stages. The first section was opened for service on 28 April 1987. This was the 2 km section between the Plaza de los Virreyes metro station and Ana Maria Janer,[1] near the line's carhouse. The service was extended to Villa Soldati in June and to General Savio on 25 August. A formal inauguration ceremony was held two days later.[1]

The cost of constructing the line was US$5.4 million, and an additional $4.6 million was allocated to the acquisition of a fleet of 25 trams. A contract for the latter was awarded around the end of 1985 to a consortium led by the Argentine company Materfer (Fábrica de Material Ferroviario),[5] of Córdoba, some of which were for a planned second line that was to be built later.[1]

Delivery of the Materfer cars was originally due to begin in mid-1987,

truck (four-axle), non-articulated, double-ended (bidirectional) trams. A total of eight such cars were built, using new metal bodies manufactured in Buenos Aires by EMEPA S.A., mounted on the original 1913 Belgian-built La Brugeoise underframes. They were painted in a livery of all-over green.[1]
The first three of these inaugurated service on the first section of line E2 in April 1987.

The Materfer trams began to arrive in mid-1988, with six delivered by the end of the year.[2] Their electrical equipment was supplied by Siemens. Like the temporary cars rebuilt from metro cars, the Materfer/Siemens trams are double-truck, double-ended cars.[2] They have seating for 24 passengers and room for around 115 standees.[1][2] They have three doors on each side. The low-platform stops along the line are long enough to accommodate only one car at a time, and multiple-unit operation is not planned, so the tramcars are not equipped with couplers.

The first Materfer cars entered service on 14 October 1988.[1] In 1989, both types of car were still in service,[2] but eventually the Materfer cars replaced all of the rebodied metro cars. By April 1991, 20 of the 25 cars had been delivered (fleet numbers PM 1–20), and the last five were reported as being completed but still at the factory in Córdoba.[6] However, the scheduled service needed only six cars.[6] As of 2001, normal peak service still required only six to eight cars.[1]Metrovías became the line's operator on 1 July 1993, under a franchise agreement.[7]

Other planned lines

Metrobus
network has replaced many of the originally planned Premetro lines.
Fátima station was refurbished in 2016 and other stations will be based on this design.

The original PreMetro plan developed in the late 1980s included the building of two or three more additional lines, however due to the timing of these projects having coincided with railway privatisation in Argentina, only PreMetro E2 materialised before the Buenos Aires Underground network was privatised and investment ground to a halt for the following two decades. Much like PreMetro E2, the naming of the PreMetro lines would have shared the letter of their corresponding Underground line along with a number depending on how many PreMetro lines corresponded to that Underground line.

With

Metrobus Sur in 2013 rendered the building of the line obsolete since it covered the same area and route, with the added benefit of going directly to the city centre without needing to transfer to Line E.[8]

While the Metrobus Sur was still in the planning stages, it had been proposed in 2012 to create a Premetro H1 line extending from the terminus of

Metrobus
was established instead of Premetro H.

Plans for other lines included PreMetro D1 in the 1980s, which would have departed from the final station of

Metrobus Cabildo rather than a tram service.[10]

There would also have been a PreMetro C1 which would have connected with

Tranvia del Este
.

Recent developments

In 2015 SBASE, along with the City of Buenos Aires, began making plans to refurbish and rebuild many of the Line E2 stations, including a brand new terminal at

Intendente Saguier terminal was completed, followed by the refurbishment of Fátima station in April 2016.[14][15]

Description and service

Line E2 passes through many poorer areas, but travel on the line is generally safe. As of 2001, service was being provided from 7:00 to 22:00, matching the hours of the line E underground service, on a

single-track.[1] The line includes sections of private right-of-way, sections of reserved track (in the median of streets, but separated from other traffic) and street-running in mixed traffic.[1]
The carhouse (maintenance facility) for the line is located along Avenida Mariano Acosta, adjacent to the Somellera stop.

Gallery

  • Tram at Pola station
    Tram at Pola station
  • A tram/light-rail car at the end of the line's single-track branch, to Centro Cívico
    A tram/light-rail car at the end of the line's single-track branch, to Centro Cívico
  • Tram in Parque de la Ciudad station
    Tram in Parque de la Ciudad station
  • General Savio station
    General Savio station
  • Interior of one of the trams
    Interior of one of the trams

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cross, Barry (April 2001). "Buenos Aires: Brand new pre-Metro line" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Tramways & Urban Transit, pp. 136–137. UK: Light Rail Transit Association/Ian Allan Publishing.
  2. ^ a b c d e Van Hattum, C. (August 1989). "Developments in Buenos Aires". Modern Tramway, pp. 271–273. UK: Ian Allan Ltd.
  3. ^ a b "Nuestra compañía - ¿Qué hacemos?" [Our Company - What We Do] (in Spanish). Metrovias. Retrieved 2015-01-18.
  4. ^ a b Premetro a Puente de la Noria, en el olvido por el Metrobus del Sur - EnElSubte, 16 August 2013
  5. ^ a b Modern Tramway, March 1986, p. 97. UK: Ian Allan Ltd.
  6. ^ a b Modern Tramway, August 1991, p. 280. UK: Ian Allan Ltd.
  7. ^ Light Rail and Modern Tramway, August 1993, p. 219. UK: Ian Allan Ltd.
  8. ^ Metrobus Sur - Buenos Aires Ciudad
  9. ^ Proponen que el Premetro absorba el recorrido del Metrobus del Sur -
  10. ^ a b ¿Por qué la línea D no llega hasta Puente Saavedra? - EnElSubte, 25 June 2013.
  11. ^ Línea E - Buenos Aires Ciudad.
  12. ^ Realizan contratación directa para renovar la terminal del Premetro - EnElSubte, March 2015
  13. ^ El plan de SBASE para el Premetro - EnElSubte, September 2014
  14. ^ Renovamos el Centro de Transferencia Intendente Saguier - Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 14 October 2015
  15. ^ "Mañana reabriremos la estación Fátima del Premetro". Buenos Aires Ciudad - Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Retrieved 24 April 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buenos Aires PreMetro.
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