Alta Córdoba is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
located in the Alta Córdoba neighborhood of
Córdoba in
the province of the same name,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. The station is terminus of the
Tren de las Sierras
Tren de las Sierras (technically known as the "A-1" branch of the General Belgrano Railway) is a regional rail line in Córdoba Province of Argentina. The line runs from Alta Córdoba to Cosquín, being currently operated by state-owned com ...
service operated by state-owned
Trenes Argentinos
Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (abbreviated SOFSE; trading name: Trenes Argentinos Operaciones) is an Argentine state-owned company created in 2008 to operate passenger services in Argentina. It is a subsidiary of the Ferrocarriles Ar ...
. Likewise, another state company,
Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logística
Belgrano Cargas y Logística S.A., trading as Trenes Argentinos Cargas, is an Argentine State-owned company which operates a freight rail network that includes Belgrano, Urquiza and San Martín railways. It is a subsidiary of Trenes Argent ...
, operates
freight
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...
services there.
History
The station was originally built by the
Córdoba Central Railway
The Córdoba Central Railway (CCR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Central Córdoba) was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a railway network in Argentina which extended from Buenos Aires, north west via Rosario and C ...
that operated a line between provinces of Córdoba and
Santa Fe, opening the first section in 1888.
In 1938, the Córdoba Central Railway (with some financial problems) was taken over by the Argentine state, being added to the
Central Northern Railway
The Central Northern Railway (Spanish: ''Ferrocarril Central Norte'', FCCN) was the first ( metre gauge) railway built by the Argentine State Railway. Its aim was to extend the existing British-owned Central Argentine broad gauge) railway fro ...
network.
When the
Juan Perón's administration
nationalised the whole
railway network in 1948, the Central Northern Railway (and therefore the Alta Córdoba station) became part of
General Belgrano Railway
The General Manuel Belgrano Railway (FCGMB) (Spanish: Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano), named after the Argentine politician and military leader Manuel Belgrano, is a railway and the longest of the Argentine system. It was one of the six ...
, one of the six divisions of recently formed
Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Ferrocarriles Argentinos (abbreviated as FA; ) was a state-owned company that managed the entire Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years. It was formed in 1948 when all the private railway companies were nationalised during Juan Perón's fir ...
.
By the 1960s the line had its golden age when it carried a big number of passengers from Valle de Punilla, as well as tourists coming from the cities of Córdoba,
Rosario and
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
at attractive prices. Nevertheless, the Córdoba-Cruz del Eje line was closed in 1977. When the
Government of Argentina led by
Carlos Menem privatized all the railway lines in the early 1990s, the Córdoba-Cruz del Eje line was transferred to Córdoba Province. The Government of Córdoba stated that they could not finance the service.
As part of a national railway privatisation plan, carried out under the presidency of Carlos Menem, a concession to operate the line was granted to local consortium Grupo Alcázar, which operated the line (also naming it ''Tren de las Sierras'') from Córdoba to
Capilla del Monte
Capilla del Monte is a small city in the northeastern part of the province of Córdoba, Argentina, located by the Sierras Chicas mountain chain, in the northern end of the Punilla Valley. It has about 11,281 inhabitants as per the .
Tourism is t ...
(100-km length) but services suddenly stopped in 2001. Three years later the Government of Córdoba revoked the contract of concession (by Provincial Decree n° 1274) blaming the concessionary for the bad conditions of the service and poor maintenance.
Private consortium Ferrocentral
Ferrocentral was an Argentine private railway company, with a name formed by a combination of the Spanish words for "Central Rail". It operated long-distance passenger trains from its base at Retiro station in Buenos Aires to several locations in ...
granted concession to operate the line, starting in 2004. In 2007 the Province transferred the line to the National Government. On August 10, 2007, the service was partially re-opened, only between the cities of Rodríguez del Busto and La Calera.
On June 22, 2009, Alta Córdoba was set up as terminus, but the concessionary decided to move terminus to Rodríguez del Busto due to people from poor neighborhoods around the station used to throw stones to the trains.
In March 2015, this section of the railway was re-opened by the Minister of the Interior and Transport,
Florencio Randazzo
Aníbal Florencio Randazzo (born 1 March 1964) in an Argentine Justicialist Party politician. He was Minister of the Interior and Transport during the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, from 2007 to 2015. An ally of Kirchner's during ...
With Alta Córdoba station virtually abandoned, the Municipality of Córdoba requested the National Government permission to move the City Council to the station building.
In September 2013 state-owned company
Trenes Argentinos
Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (abbreviated SOFSE; trading name: Trenes Argentinos Operaciones) is an Argentine state-owned company created in 2008 to operate passenger services in Argentina. It is a subsidiary of the Ferrocarriles Ar ...
took over the Tren de las Sierras. In March 2015, Alta Córdoba was set up as terminus again.
Operators
;Notes
See also
*
Tren de las Sierras
Tren de las Sierras (technically known as the "A-1" branch of the General Belgrano Railway) is a regional rail line in Córdoba Province of Argentina. The line runs from Alta Córdoba to Cosquín, being currently operated by state-owned com ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alta Cordoba railway station
Railway stations in Argentina
Railway stations opened in 1891
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