Trams in Buenos Aires
The first trams in Buenos Aires began operating in 1863 in what quickly became a vast network of tramways with the city being known as the "City of Trams" for having the highest tramway-to-population ratio in the world.[1][2][3] In the 1920s, Buenos Aires had 875 km (544 mi) of tramways and 99 tram lines using 3000 carriages running throughout the city.[2][3] By 1963, the vast majority of the network began to be dismantled, though some minor tram services continue in the city today.
History
Horse-drawn and steam-powered trams
The first horse-drawn trams began circulating the city in 1863 as a feeder service to the railways, taking passengers from Plaza de Mayo to the Retiro Terminal,[4] where it connected to the Buenos Aires Northern Railway. A second similar horse-drawn feeder service was established between Monserrat and the Constitución railway terminal in 1866 to service the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway.[2]
The first urban tramways were inaugurated in 1870 by
Electrification of the network
In 1880
The Belgian Compagnie Générale de Tramways de Buenos-Ayres took over the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company in 1908 and standardised much of the network, though many Argentine companies such as the Lacroze Company remained.[6] In the early 1900s the network expanded rapidly as a result of electrification and by the mid-1920s the system has reached its maximum extension of 875 km with 3,000 vehicles carrying 650 million passengers a year on 99 lines serviced by 12,000 employees.[6] At the same time, some of the tramways began moving underground when the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company opened the Buenos Aires Underground's Line A in 1913, becoming the first underground rail in Latin America, the southern hemisphere and the Spanish speaking world.[11][12]
20th Century
In 1922 the first Colectivos (buses) began to appear in the city and by 1928 were competing fiercely with the trams, with many operators going as far as running their colectivos in front of the trams to try and steal their passengers.[6] However, the trams did remain competitive, even going as far as offering a special "workers fare" in which people using trams from 5 until 7 in the morning could get a reduced fare at half the standard rate, something which was later abolished in 1949.[10]
The network saw somewhat of a resurgence following the
However, this resurgence and rapid growth of the network was to be short-lived, since in 1961 - under pressure from private interests threatened by what they perceived to be a state monopoly on public transport - the
The final trams ceased operating in February 1963, just a few days after the 100-year anniversary of the first tram in Buenos Aires.[9] Most of the tram services saw direct replacements with the hundreds of buses purchased by the Government of Argentina from Leyland Motors.[13]
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A Lacroze Company funeral tram
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A Lacroze Company horse-drawn tram
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Passengers aboard early electric tram (1897)
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Electric tram (c.1940)
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Double decker CATITA Imperial
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Workers celebrating the "birth of Peronism"
PreMetro
The
Originally there were supposed to be two PreMetro lines, however the second line (E1) was never built following the
Heritage Tramway
Today, the Association of Friends of the Tramway (Spanish: Asociación Amigos del Tranvía) maintain and refurbish numerous trams inside the
Rides on this Historic Tramway of Caballito are free, and the tours are organized by the Association of Tramway Friends and Federico Lacroze Public Library. [19] which also serves as the workshop for Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground.
The group formed in 1980 and runs a heritage tramway in the
As part of the AAT's ongoing restoration and acquisition of more trams to add to its museum, it also acquired some La Brugeoise cars, which up until 2013 served Line A of the Underground, with the intention of restoring them and converting them to be used as trams, which was their original use before the Underground.[22]
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Inaugural heritage tramway trip in 1980
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Polvorín workshop
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Interior of an AAT tram
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A 1927 tram at the Polvorín workshop
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A 1950s Fabricaciones Militares tram
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Tram in Caballito, Buenos Aires
Other services
The
In
See also
References
- ^ a b Trams Of Argentina - Don Ross Group, 7 November 2014.
- ^ a b c d Historia del tranvía en Buenos Aires Archived 2015-04-10 at archive.today - Revista Digital ead
- ^ a b Un viaje por la historia de la ciudad en el viejo Tramway - ElDiario.es, 21 March 2015.
- ^ La historia del tranvía de Buenos Aires, un recorrido por la nostalgia Archived 23 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine - Eterna Buenos Aires, 18 January 2011.
- ISSN 1514-8793.
- ^ a b c d e f g h APUNTES SOBRE LA HISTORIA DEL TRANVÍA EN BUENOS AIRES Archived 2013-07-28 at the Wayback Machine - Biblioteca Popular Federico Lacroze
- ^ LOS TRANSPORTES EN LOMAS DE ZAMORA: Los tranvias Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine - Centro de Investigaciones Territoriales y Ambientales Bonaerenses (CITAB)
- ^ Korney Kolomnov, "Where the Tram Came From (Откуда Есть Пошёл Трамвай)". Archived from the original on 30 June 2003. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Zerkalo Nedeli, 379 (in Russian). (web.archive.org copy from 2003-06-30.) - ^ a b c Tranvías de Buenos Aires: historia sobre rieles Archived 20 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine - Terra, 24 November 2013
- ^ a b c Tranvías en Buenos Aires - Buenos Aires Antiguo
- ^ BUENOS AIRES - Urban Rail
- ^ El Subte: 100 años bajo tierra - Noticias Urbanas, 28 November 2013
- ^ Leyland Urbanos en los '60. - BusARG
- ^ Buenos Aires: Brand new pre-Metro line Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine - Tramways & Urban Transit, 2001.
- ^ Nuestra compañía Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine - Metrovias
- ^ Van Hattum, C. (August 1989). "Developments in Buenos Aires". Modern Tramway, pp. 271–273. UK: Ian Allan Ltd.
- ^ Premetro a Puente de la Noria, en el olvido por el Metrobus del Sur - EnElSubte, 16 August 2014
- ^ Realizan contratación directa para renovar la terminal del Premetro - EnElSubte, 13 March 2015.
- ^ GuiaBuenos Aires. "Tramway Histórico de Buenos Aires". GuiaBuenos Aires. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
- ^ La AAT celebra con un festival los 150 años del tranvía - EnElSubte, 12 July 2013
- ^ Tranvía Histórico - Buenos Aires 123
- ^ Realizan pruebas con Brugeoise reconvertidos a 1500 V en la línea A - EnElSubte, 11 July 2014.
- ^ "El tranvía de Puerto Madero está a la deriva", Infobae, 9 Jan 2013
- ^ Tramways & Urban Transit, January 2013, p. 29. UK: LRTA Publishing.
- ^ Rossi, Antonio (2008). "El Tranvía de Puerto Madero será ampliado de Retiro a la Boca". Clarín (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
- ^ Tren de la Costa from Buenos Aires to Tigre - The Real Argentina.
External links
- Documents and clippings about Compagnie Générale de Tramways de Buenos-Ayres S.A. in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW