Tucumán Ferrocarriles S.A. (also known for its acronym TUFESA) was a 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 operated a railway line between

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 ...

and Tucumán in

, currently part of Mitre Railway network after nationalisation of the entire railway network in 1948.

History

As part of a national railway privatisation plan, carried out under the presidency of Carlos Menem, a concession to operate the line was granted to the government of

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neigh ...

in 1992, that ran a service named ''El Tucumano,'' although it did not last so long. After ''El Tucumano'' was definitely cancelled, in 1997 the provincial government called a tender to operate trains to Tucumán. "Tucumán Ferrocarriles S.A." (abbreviated "TUFESA") was granted a concession to run the service. David Giménez was the chairman on board. The company started operating in 1997 with an express service with stopped only in intermediate stations La Banda, Colonia Dorá, and Rosario Norte. Some of the diesel locomotives used were EMD GT-22 and

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

RSD-16. Gimenez left the company some time later, and left a woman in charge, who designated Viviana Totongi as general manager. The company was going through some financial problems at the time these two women came to the office. The company launched a standard service with 4 trains per week from/to Tucumán. It was getting recovered, but some politicians made the situation more difficult. Those politicians, and the financial problems that were being solved resulted in the cancellation of the contract of concession in 2000 therefore passenger services were interrupted. Two years later, trains from Buenos Aires to Tucumán would be run by NOA Ferrocarriles S.A., with a service named ''El Jardín de la República'' ("Garden of the Republic"), taking about 24 hours to connect both cities. although the service was working again. Passengers transportation was really bad, interrupted, and almost didn't work at all. Another private company,

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 in ...

, would take over services to Tucumán after the government of Tucumán revoked the concession granted to NOA in 2005."Proponen que se reincorpore a los ex empleados de NOA Ferrocarriles"
''La Gaceta'', 28 Sep 2005 the services are working properly until now.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucuman Ferrocarriles Defunct railway companies of Argentina Metre gauge railways in Argentina t