Retiro-Mitre, or simply Retiro, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in

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 ...

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 ...

. Located in the neighborhood of Retiro, it serves as terminal station for the

Mitre Line The Mitre line is an Argentine broad gauge commuter rail service in Buenos Aires Province and is part of the Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre division. The service is currently operated by the State-owned company Operadora Ferroviaria Soci ...

that runs local trains to the northern suburbs of the

Buenos Aires metropolitan area 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 adjac ...

. It also functions as terminal station for the national train General Mitre Railway.

Overview

It is one of Argentina's largest railway stations. Retiro Mitre is accessible by the C line and Line E of the

Buenos Aires Metro The Buenos Aires Underground ( es, Subterráneo de Buenos Aires, links=no), locally known as Subte (), is a rapid transit system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first section of this network (Plaza de Mayo–Plaz ...

system and by numerous local public bus services. The station will also be accessible by

Line H Line H is a line of the Buenos Aires Underground. The first phase, between Plaza Once and Caseros, which opened on 18 October 2007, currently stretches over 8.8 km between Hospitales and Facultad de Derecho stations. It is the first entirely ...

of the metro once its extension is complete. The station is also near

Retiro bus station Retiro bus station ( es, Terminal de Ómnibus de Retiro) is the main bus terminal in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is situated in the Retiro district, two blocks north of Retiro railway station. Overview The station was commissioned in 1980 by t ...

(''Terminal de Omnibus''), the principal long-distance bus terminal in Buenos Aires.

History

The Edwardian-style station building was designed by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

architects Eustace L. Conder, Roger Conder and Sydney G. Follet together with the engineer Reginald Reynolds. Building began in June 1909 and the station was opened on 1 August 1915 while being operated by the

Central Argentine Railway The Central Argentine Railway, referred to as CA below, (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Central Argentino) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, British companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company had been establis ...

. The steel structure for the building was made in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and re-assembled in Argentina. For many years it was considered to be the most important example of structural engineering in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and architecturally one of the finest buildings in the world. The train shed was supplied by the

Butterley Company The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009. Origins This area of Derbyshire had been known for its outcrops of iron ore which had been exploited ...

and closely resembles that at St Pancras in London. After the

railway Nationalisation in Argentina In 1948, during President Juan Perón's first term of office, the seven British- and three French-owned railway companies then operating in Argentina, were purchased by the state. These companies, together with those that were already state-ow ...

, the station became part of the Bartolomé Mitre Railway, a division of state-owned

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 ...

, which operated commuter rail and long-distance services to Tucumán (being the ''Estrella del Norte'' the most notable of them) When the entire rail network was

privatised Privatization (also 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 when ...

in the early 1990s, Retiro Mitre was taken over by

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, also ...

(TBA) for commuter services and Tucumán Ferrocarriles for long-distance journeys to the province, also crossing Rosario and Santiago del Estero. Other private companies operating the station were Corredores Ferroviarios"De a uno por línea, para mejor control", ''Página 12'', 12 Feb 2014
/ref>"Metrovías operará las líneas Mitre y San Martín", ''En el Subte'', 12 Feb 2014
/ref> and

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 i ...

. In 1997 the Retiro Mitre station was declared a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

. In 2015 plans were announced to expand the station with new platforms to accommodate long-distance services operated by

Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado 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 ...

. The new part of the station would have new road access from

Libertador Avenue Libertador Avenue is a major avenue in Montevideo, Uruguay. It stretches north from the Legislative Palace in Aguada to Plaza Fabini in Centro, and is named after Juan Antonio Lavalleja, revolutionary figure and politician, who led the group ...

, replacing land currently used for storage of rolling stock. The existing buildings are also currently being renovated, including restoration of the train shed.Nuevo acceso y andenes para larga distancia en Retiro Mitre
- EnElSubte, 3 April 2015

Services

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 ...

operates the

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 calling at José León Suárez (

General San Martín Partido General San Martín Partido is a partido in the Gran Buenos Aires urban area, immediately to the north-west of the Capital federal in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The provincial subdivision has a population of 422,830 inhabitants in an ar ...

), Tigre, and

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre Martínez (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of unified Argentina. Mitre is known as the most versatile ...

along its three branches.

Long-distance Long distance or Long-distance may refer to: *Long-distance calling * Long-distance operator * Long-distance relationship * Long-distance train *Long-distance anchor pylon, see dead-end tower Footpaths * Long-distance trail *European long-d ...

services to

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

and Tucumán cities are also operated by the same company.

In media

Several films have been filmed at the station, the most important of which are

Evita Evita may refer to: Arts * Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name * Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron * Evita (album), ''E ...

and

The Secret in Their Eyes ''The Secret in Their Eyes'' ( es, link=no, El secreto de sus ojos) is a 2009 Argentinian crime drama film directed, co-written, produced and edited by Juan José Campanella, based on the novel ''La pregunta de sus ojos'' (''The Question in The ...

. Also several novels take place in the station and its surroundings.

Gallery

File:Gran Hall 2.jpg, Great hall, 1915 File:ID 218 Area Retiro. Salón café, terminal Mitre 0760.jpg, Coffeehouse, 2013 File:Retiro. Nuevo techado de una de las bóvedas de los andenes.jpg, Platform roofs, 2015 File:Trenes suburbanos y de larga distancia en la estacion Retiro del Ferrocarril Mitre.jpg, North view, 2015 File:RetiroTerminal TrainPlatform August2017.jpg, Train platforms, 2017 File:J30 831 Bf Retiro Mitre, Querbahnsteighalle.jpg, Hall, 2018

References