Province of Santa Fe Railway
Province of Santa Fe Railway | |||
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Province of Santa Fe Railway (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Provincial de Santa Fe and in French: "Compagnie Française de Chemins de Fer dans la Province de Santa Fe") was a
History
Development
The company had its origins in the signing of a contract between the Santa Fe Provincial government and John G. Meiggs Son & Co. for the construction of a 100 km (62 mi) line north from the city of Santa Fe in the direction of the agricultural colonies. The section from Santa Fe to Rafaela was opened on 1 July 1885 and from Rafaela to Lehmann on 1 May 1886. Later the same year branch lines were opened from Empalme San Carlos to San Carlos Sur on 1 July and from Santa Fe to Colastiné on 15 October, and the line from Lehman to San Cristóbal was opened on 31 December. The line from San Carlos Sur to Gálvez was completed on 1 July 1887 and the following year the line from Humboldt to Providencia was opened on 1 January and extended to Soledad on 1 June.
On 1 January 1888 the line from
Until then the property of the Province, the company was transferred on 10 April 1900, by provincial decree, to the "Compañía Francesa de los Ferrocarriles de la Provincia de Santa Fe", the oldest of the three French–owned railway companies in Argentina, formed by the great banque d'affaires Paribas, the steel company Fives Lille and a group of financiers associated with the latter.
In
Sale to French consortium
The Ferrocarril Santafesino, built and operated by the Santa Fe Province until then, was transferred to French-owned "Compañía Francesa de los Ferrocarriles de la Provincia de Santa Fe" by decree on April 10, 1900. The Compañía Francesa was a consortium formed by Gran Banque d'Affaires Paribas, steel producer Fives Lille and a group of associate financiers.
The recently formed company opened a branch from Virginia to Moisés Ville in December 1901 and two years later, an access to the Port of San Martín.
In Córdoba Province, the
In 1911 a freight railway was built between Sorrento and the electric power plant owned by the Sociedad de Electricidad del Rosario in Barrio Sarmiento. From Charaday to Oetling the line was opened in November 1911, in August 1912 the Horquilla-Enrique Urién section was opened, reaching Villa Angela in December 1914. The Vera-Reconquista line was opened in November 1913, that same year a branch to Villa Guillermina was also opened.
During the second half of the 1920s the company made a restructuring of the railway, building new access and stations (being Capitán Bermúdez one of them) and a new building for the terminal station in Rosario, opened in 1929. The building would be later closed and reopened as a bus station in 1950.
Other branches built by the company (that totalized 146-km length) include the Lanteri-Las Toscas (72 km), Enrique Urien to Ñandubay (44 km.), and Oetling-Punta Rieles al Norte (30 km).
When the entire Argentine railway network was
See also
Bibliography
- Foreign Capital, Local Interests and Railway Development in Argentina: French Investments in Railways, 1900–1914 by Andres M. Regalsky - Journal of Latin American Studies (Oct. 1989)
External links
- Documents and clippings about Province of Santa Fe Railway in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW