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 ...

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 ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

companies run both,

passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

and

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...

services within the country. The first State-owned company was

Argentine State Railway Argentine State Railway (in Spanish: Ferrocarriles del Estado) was a State-owned railway company of Argentina, established by Law N° 6.757 in October 1909, when José Figueroa Alcorta was the President of Argentina. The company built and oper ...

("Ferrocarriles del Estado"), formed in October 1909 while

José Figueroa Alcorta José María Cornelio Figueroa Alcorta (November 20, 1860 – December 27, 1931) was an Argentine lawyer and politician, who managed to be the only person to head the three powers of the State: Vice President of the Nation (President of the ...

was President of Argentina. Current State-owned companies (as of February 2015) are

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 ...

( DBA "Trenes Argentinos", owned by the National Government), and regional companies

Ferrobaires The Unidad Ejecutora del Plan Ferroviario Provincial (UEPFP) (in English: "Executive Unit of the Provincial Railway Plan"), mostly known under its trade name Ferrobaires, was a public railway company which operated extensive long-distance passen ...

, operated by 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 ...

and Servicios Ferroviarios Patagónico (owned by the Government of Río Negro).

History

State-owned railways before

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 pri ...

: *

Andino Andino was a small automobile manufacturer around 1967 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Andino built sports coupés using Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational ...

* Argentino del Norte * Central de Buenos Aires * Central Entrerriano *

Central Norte Club Atlético Central Norte is an Argentine football club from the city of Salta, from the Salta Province. The team currently plays in the Torneo Federal A The Torneo Federal A (in English "Federal A Tournament") is one of the two professio ...

* Del Chaco * Central Chubut * Córdoba Central * Córdoba North W. * Patagónicos * Primer Entrerriano * Provincial de Buenos Aires * Provincial de Santa Fe * Rural de Buenos Aires *

State Railway State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

In 1948 the railway network of

was

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 ...

by President

Juan Domingo Perón ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

. The previously privately owned French and British railway companies, together with a number of companies that had been nationalised earlier, (

Córdoba Central Railway The Córdoba Central Railway (CCR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Central Córdoba) was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a railway network in Argentina which extended from Buenos Aires, north west via Rosario and C ...

, 1939, and others), were formed into the following six state-owned companies: * FC Sarmiento * FC Mitre * FC Belgrano * FC Roca * FC San Martín * FC Urquiza These six companies later amalgamated to form

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 1991, President of Argentina

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. H ...

led the privatization of the entire railway network. While the process was completed, a provisional company,

FEMESA Ferrocarriles Metropolitanos S.A. (also known for its acronym FEMESA) was a company set up by the Argentine government in 1991, during the presidency of Carlos Menem, to oversee the privatisation of commuter rail services within the city of Bue ...

, took over the operation of the urban services in

previously managed by Ferrocarriles Argentinos. Two years later, the UEPFP (later "

") was established by the

Government in order to run long-distance services that had been previously closed by the National Government. Nevertheless, some temporary consortiums (such as UGOFE and UGOMS) were formed after the contracts of some

TBA To be announced (TBA), to be confirmed (TBC), to be determined or decided or declared (TBD), and other variations, are placeholder terms used very broadly in event planning to indicate that although something is scheduled or expected to happen, a ...

and

Metropolitano Metropolitano S.A. was a privately owned consortium formed in 1994 to take over concessions granted by the Argentine government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of Carlos Menem for the operation of commuter rail services i ...

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

companies were revoked for failing to fulfill their obligations. Today, the main state-owned railway company is the new Ferrocarriles Argentinos and its subsidiaries, while other companies like

are owned by local provincial governments.

References

{{Railway Companies in Argentina Railway companies of Argentina Government-owned railway companies

History

See also

References