Metropolitano S.A. was a privately owned consortium formed in 1994 to take over concessions granted by the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. He ...

for the operation of

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

services in the

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

. Metropolitano operated the San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines until 2007.

History

Passenger services In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor v ...

on San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines had previously been run by

state-owned company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

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 ...

since

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

of the railways in 1948 and then by FEMESA (a provisional company that operated metropolitan train services until the process of privatisation was carried out). The services run by Metropolitano started from termini in or near the city centre and were operated out into

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adj ...

by the following subsidiary companies named "Transportes Metropolitanos": In spite of these companies receiving large government subsidies, their services deteriorated to a point where Metropolitano was repeatedly reported by the users, causing the Government of Argentina to fine the company several times. Finally, in 2004 the concession for the operation of Línea San Martín was revoked through National Decree N° 798. A violent protest of users in Constitución station on 15 May 2007 led to the revocation of the contract of concession that same year through Decrees 591 and 592. After the concession was revoked, the three railway lines were taken over by the consortium UGOFE, formed by private companies Ferrovías, Metrovías and

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 ...

."La UGOFE se hará cargo de los servicios de las dos líneas ferroviarias"
''La Prensa''

References

External links

Official site
(Archive)
Pasajeros del Roca
a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

discussing on-going issues of the Roca Line {{Railway Companies in Argentina Defunct railway companies of Argentina Railway companies established in 1994 Railway companies disestablished in 2007 Rail transport in Buenos Aires Province