The Andean Railway (native name: Ferrocarril Andino) was a state-owned railway company 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 area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

which, towards the end of the 19th century, built and operated a line connecting

Villa María A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became sm ...

in Córdoba Province with the cities of Mendoza, San Luis and San Juan. The network was later sold to a number of

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, ...

-owned railway companies.

History

The first plan to reach the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

through railway had been carried out with a concession granted to

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 ...

(CAR) and later with the project to make

Buenos Aires Western Railway The Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network which was ...

a trans-andean line. The aim of the railway was linking the three provinces of the Cuyo region, San Juan, San Luis and Mendoza with the city of Rosario, via the CAR. The AR was the first state-owned railway in Argentina and was founded on 15 November 1867 by decree promulgated in November 1867, from

to Villa Nueva, then extending to Río Cuarto. At the beginning of 1870 the Government signed an agreement to British entrepreneur John Simmons who committed to finish the railway within 3 years at a cost of A$ 26,200 per mile. In November that same years works began. On October 24, 1873, the Villa María–Río Cuarto section was finished. That same the company started works to extend the line to

Villa Mercedes, San Luis Villa Mercedes is a city in the province of San Luis, Argentina. It lies on the center-east of the province, on the left-hand banks of the Quinto River, 32 km from the border with Córdoba, on National Route 148, and near the intersection ...

, opening the line two years later, totalizing 254 km. President of Argentina

Nicolás Avellaneda Nicolás Remigio Aurelio Avellaneda Silva (3 October 1837 – 24 November 1885) was an Argentine politician and journalist, and President of Argentina from 1874 to 1880. Avellaneda's main projects while in office were banking and education ...

attended the ceremony. Once the works finished, the National Government hired J. E. Rogers (whose company had been one of the constructors) to operate the line. The Government required Rogers his employees had to be Argentina-born. Details of the building of the line are as follows: In 1886 the AR bought the branch line from Villa Mercedes to

La Toma ''La Toma'' (Spanish: ''The taking'') was a legal declaration made by Don Juan de Oñate on 30 April 1598 in present-day San Elizario, Texas. It stated that Spain was taking possession of all territory north of the Rio Grande for King Philip II of ...

from the ex-'' Ferrocarril Noroeste a La Rioja'' and extended it to Villa Dolores to give a branch line with a total length of 226 km. The construction costs and tariffs of the AR were the lowest of any railway company in Argentina at that time, and when it began to make a profit, the network was sold off to British-owned companies as detailed in Table 2.

Bibliography

* ''British Railways in Argentina 1857-1914: A Case Study of Foreign Investment'' by Colin Lewis - Athlone Press (for the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London), 1983 {{Railway Companies in Argentina Defunct railway companies of Argentina Railway companies established in 1867 Railway companies disestablished in 1909 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in Argentina a a a

History

See also

Bibliography