Tren del Valle is a

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 ...

service that connects cities of

Plottier Plottier is a city located in the Confluencia Department, in Neuquén Province, Argentina. The population is 40.000 inhabitants. It is about 15 km from Neuquén City, which turns this city into an important place for the population. Plottie ...

Neuquén Neuquén (; arn, Nehuenken) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers w ...

and

Cipolletti Cipolletti ( or ) is a city in north of the Patagonian . With a population of 87,492 inhabitants at the , Cipolletti is the third-most populated settlement in the province, after San Carlos de Bariloche and General Roca. Geography The city is ...

, in the Río Negro and

Provinces of Argentina, running on Roca Railway tracks. In a second stage, the line would be extended to

General Roca A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...

and

, in the same province. The Tren del Valle is named after "''Alto valle del Río Negro''", a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

located at the north west of Río Negro Province, crossing cities of General Roca, Cipolletti, Villa Regina, Cinco Saltos, among others. It extends from the confluence of Limay and Neuquén rivers to Chichinales. The region is about in size, and is also notable for its production of apples as well as its vast

Vaca Muerta The Vaca Muerta Formation, commonly known as Vaca Muerta (Spanish for ''Dead Cow''), is a geologic formation of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age, located in the Neuquén Basin in northern Patagonia, Argentina. It is well known as the host roc ...

oil field, whose freight lines will share some tracks with the Tren del Valle. The service, after preliminary tests, was opened on 21 July 2015, being 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 ...

History

The railway was originally built and operated by British-owned

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( es, Ferrocarril del Sud) was one of the ''Big Four'' Indian gauge, broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward ...

, that reached the city of

Zapala Zapala is a city and touristic destination in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina with about 32,000 inhabitants according to the . The city is located at the geographic center of the province at the confluence of national and provincia ...

in 1908, expanding its network to by then. After the railways were

nationalised 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 pri ...

in 1948, the BAGSR became part of General Roca Railway, one of the six divisions of recently created 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 ...

. In 2014, several railway projects were approved for the Río Negro and

provinces to reactivate passenger services in the region, they were ''Estrella del Valle'', ''Tren del Valle'', and ''Tren del Dique'', running on Roca Railway tracks. The first step of the project will be to open the "Tren del Valle" that will connect cities of

(of the homonymous province) and

in Río Negro Province. Rolling stock used will be provided by local company

Materfer Materfer (an acronym for Material Ferroviario S.A.) is an Argentine manufacturer of railway and road vehicles, located in the city of Ferreyra in Córdoba Province. The company was established by Fiat Concord in the late 1950s, being its subsidi ...

, that was committed to build 20

CMM 400-2 The CMM 400-2 is a diesel multiple unit produced by Materfer in Córdoba Province, Argentina. The units are produced in Argentina's three primary track gauges and the standard gauge variants were the first to be produced for General Urquiza Ra ...

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a 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 coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...

s to run on the line. There is no time limit for the reopening. Works for the reopening include repair of the bridge that crosses the river and the remodelling of Neuquén station, apart of the installation of six warning devices on six

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

s along the route. During the first days of July 2015, the train made its first preliminary tests, running between both cities before being officially inaugurated on 20 of July. The first expansion was made in 2021 to the city of Plottier, around 15 km west of Neuquén. Other projects plan to extend the service to the end of the valley, reaching cities such as Senillosa and

Chichinales Chichinales is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an a ...

Gallery

File:Tren 0km entre Neuquén y Cipolletti 1.jpg, A

File:Tren valle bridge.jpg, Train running on the Neuquén River bridge File:Tren valle neuquen.jpg, A train in Neuquén station, 2015 File:Neuquen station 1900s.jpg, Neuquén station, 1900 File:Neuquen Cipolletti bridge finished 1902.jpg, Bridge over the Neuquén River, 1902

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tren del Valle v Transport in Río Negro Province

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links