The Tren de los Pueblos Libres ("Train of the Free Peoples") was an 813-km length rural railway line that connected

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 ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, being operated by both the Argentine

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

Trenes de Buenos Aires Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA) (In English: Trains of Buenos Aires) was a private company that operated commuter rail services over the broad gauge Sarmiento and Mitre lines of Buenos Aires. The company, owned by Claudio and Mario Cirigliano, als ...

(TBA) on

General Urquiza Railway The General Urquiza Railway (FCGU) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril General Urquiza), named after the Argentine general and politician Justo José de Urquiza, is a standard gauge railway of Argentina which runs approximately northwards from Buenos Air ...

standard gauge rail tracks, and Uruguayan the

State-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

State Railways Administration of Uruguay "Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado" (AFE).

History

The train had run from 1982 to 1985 between cities of Concordia (Argentina) and Salto (Uruguay). After 26 years of being active only for

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hau ...

s, the service was officially re-opened on August 11, 2011, in a ceremony held by Presidents of both countries. On 23 September the train made its first journey carrying people from Pilar to Paso de los Toros. Some intermediate stops were Argentine stations Zárate, Enrique Carbó, Urdinarrain, Basavilbaso,

Villaguay Villaguay is a city in the province of Entre Ríos in the Argentine Mesopotamia. It has about 49,000 inhabitants as of thcensus 2010and is the head town of the department of the same name. The city lies near the geographic center of the provin ...

San Salvador San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital ...

and Concordia and Uruguayan Salto, Quebracho and

Paysandú Paysandú () is the capital of Paysandú Department in western Uruguay. Location The city is located on the banks of the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina. It lies northwest of Montevideo via Route 1 and Route 3, on the ju ...

. From Pilar to

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 Am ...

passengers were carried by

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for ch ...

. The project included the intention for trains to reach

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern c ...

in December 2011, although it would never be carried out. On its first official journey, the train only reached Salto due to the Uruguayan Ministry of Transport still not having given authorisation for the service to operate in the country. Therefore, all passengers had to get out in Salto and the train continued without people to Paso de los Toros. The service was finally restarted on 30 September. Nevertheless, the service ran to Paso de los Toros only five times, with the terminus set up in Paysandú from November 2011. From March 2012, the service was shortened again, setting Salto as terminus of the line. Afterwards, in May 2012 the

Government of Argentina The government of Argentina, within the framework of a federal system, is a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Argentina is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President ...

revoked the contract of concession to TBA after the Once rail disaster in which 51 people died and at least 703 people were injured on a service operated by the same company. Finally, on 28 May the service was interrupted and subsequently never restarted. The railcars that served the line are currently abandoned in Pilar.Montevideo.comm: «Un descarrilamiento anunciado: tren binacional ya no está operativo»
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Gallery

References

External links

* (archived, 27 Dec 2011) {{Rail transport in Argentina Railway services introduced in 2011 Railway services discontinued in 2012 Standard gauge railways in Argentina Railway lines in Uruguay Railway lines in Argentina

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links