Ferrocarriles Argentinos
The Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA) were a state-owned company that operated rail transport in Argentina for almost 45 years . The company was founded in 1948, during the reign of Juan Perón , as part of the nationalization of the private railway companies.
Directorates
The Ferrocarriles Argentinos consisted of six relatively independent directorates, named after former presidents and national heroes:
- Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (FCDFS, after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento )
- Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Miter (FCGBM, after Bartolomé Miter )
- Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano (FCGMB, after Manuel Belgrano ; meter gauge , especially in the north and northwest)
- Ferrocarril General Roca (FCGR, after Julio Argentino Roca )
- Ferrocarril General San Martín (FCGSM, after José de San Martín )
- Ferrocarril General Urquiza (FCGU, after Justo José de Urquiza ; standard-gauge route network in the Mesopotamia region )
The networks of the Sarmiento, Miter, Roca and San Martín directorates were and are predominantly with 1676 mm wide gauge (Roca also operated some narrow-gauge lines). These networks were created on the basis of the former four most important private railways controlled by British capital, each with the addition of other lines, some of which were already state-owned: Sarmiento from the Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Western Railway, FCO / BAWR), Miter from the Ferrocarril Central Argentino (Central Argentine Railway, FCCA / CA), Roca from the Ferrocarril del Sud (Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway, FCS / BAGS) and San Martín from the Ferrocarril Buenos Aires al Pacífico (Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway, BAP / BA & P).
Growth and decline
At the time of the FA, the Argentine rail network was at its greatest expansion and with over 45,000 km was the largest in Latin America. During the military rule between 1976 and 1983 and the subsequent redemocratization, however, the FA fell into a recession that ended with complete privatization, beginning in 1992 as part of Carlos Menem's neoliberal reforms .
The FA were split up as early as 1991; the services in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires have been combined in Ferrocarriles Metropolitanos SA (FEMESA). The freight transport branch, the Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano, initially remained in state hands, but was then transferred to the Unión Ferroviaria railway workers' union and renamed Belgrano Cargas. The second largest branch, Miter Cargas, went to Nuevo Central Argentino SA (NCA) in December 1992 .
