Ferrovías S.A.C. is a

privately owned company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

which, on 1 April 1994, took over the concession, granted by the Argentine government as part of railway

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

during the presidency of

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

, for the operation of the (

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

)

Belgrano Norte Line The Belgrano Norte line is a commuter rail service in Buenos Aires, Argentina run by the private company Ferrovías since 1 April 1994. This service had previously been run by the state-owned General Belgrano Railway since nationalisation of ...

commuter rail service in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. From 2004 to 2014 the company also formed part of UGOFE, a consortium with

Metrovías Metrovías S.A. is an Argentine privately held company that operates the Metropolitan services of the Urquiza Line. 90% of Metrovías' shares are held by Grupo Roggio. Metrovías was also operator of the Buenos Aires Underground from 1995 to Dec ...

and Trenes de Buenos Aires, which took over the running of commuter rail services on the Belgrano Sur, Roca and San Martín lines in Buenos Aires after concessions granted to Metropolitano S.A. for the operation of these services were revoked. UGOFE was dissolved in 2013. Ferrovías operated the Puerto Madero Tramway,Webb, Mary (ed.) (2009). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2009–2010'', p. 4. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK):

Jane's Information Group Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred T. ...

. . in the

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires, ''barrio'' of Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Central Business District, Central Business District. Occup ...

district of

, from July 2007 until its closure in October 2012. Outside of Argentina, the company also operates the

Lima Metro The Lima and Callao Metro () is a rapid transit system that serves the cities of Lima and Callao, which make up the Lima metropolitan area. The existing metro lines (1 and 2) currently link the district of Villa El Salvador in the south of Lim ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

History

Background

By the end of the 1980s all the railway system in Argentina was privatized by the national government. The metropolitan services were privatized since March 1991. A new company – Ferrocarriles Metropolitanos S.A. ( FEMESA) – was established to operate the suburban services until the railway lines were given in concession to their respective operators.

Ferrovías administration

On April 1, 1994, Ferrovías S.A.C. took over the Línea Belgrano Norte. During the first year of operation, the line carried 14,800,000 passengers. The main plan of the concession were based on 3 objectives: * To improve the infrastructure of track, bridges and level crossings and signal system and traffic control in all the stations of the line. * The maintenance of locomotives and coaches in good conditions. * To reduce travel time between head stations (Retiro and Villa Rosa), increasing also the number of coaches. Due to the investments, the number of passengers carried increased to 36 million during 1999 and 2000. In 2008 it was increased to 45,830,200 passengers. Emepa_alerce_padilla4

The General Auditing Office released a report indicating that the subsidies given by the State to Ferrovías were misappropriated to other companies of the holding which received them as "loans". In 2011 Ferrovías received subsidies for a total of A$ 368,3 million. In addition to the remodeling of the stations, this comprehensive renovation includes improvements to the tracks and signage in the station area, which will allow improvements in train circulation. The works were awarded in November 2017 and at the end of March 2018 the works began. In 2015, Ferrovías introduced the Alerce, a

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

manufactured by the Emepa Group that ran trains from

Boulogne Sur Mer Boulogne Sur Mer is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is in San Isidro Partido and forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation, north of Buenos Aires. It has a population of 89,046 (2001 INDEC census). The town is na ...

to Retiro. Each train had a capacity for 240 passengers and featured intelligent doors,

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...

security camera A closed-circuit television camera is a type of surveillance camera that transmits video signals to a specific set of monitors or video recording devices, rather than broadcasting the video over public airwaves. The term "closed-circuit televisi ...

s, disabled access and

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

.Nuevo servicio diferencial entre Retiro y Del Viso
- Trenes Argentinos, 13 July 2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrovias Railway companies of Argentina Emepa Group Rail transport in Buenos Aires Province Privately held companies of Argentina