Metropolitano S.A. was a privately owned consortium formed in 1994 to take over concessions granted by the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

for the operation of

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

services in the

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

. Metropolitano operated the San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines until 2007.

History

Passenger services A train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by l ...

on San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines had previously been run by

state-owned company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

Ferrocarriles Argentinos Ferrocarriles Argentinos (abbreviated as FA; ) was a government-owned corporation, state-owned company that managed the entire Rail transport in Argentina, Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years. It was formed in 1948 when all the private r ...

since

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 contrasts with priv ...

of the railways in 1948 and then by

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 Buen ...

(a provisional company that operated metropolitan train services until the process of privatisation was carried out). The services run by Metropolitano started from termini in or near the city centre and were operated out into

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...

by the following subsidiary companies named "Transportes Metropolitanos": In spite of these companies receiving large government subsidies, their services deteriorated to a point where Metropolitano was repeatedly reported by the users, causing the Government of Argentina to fine the company several times. Finally, in 2004 the concession for the operation of Línea San Martín was revoked through National Decree N° 798. A violent protest of users in Constitución station on 15 May 2007 led to the revocation of the contract of concession that same year through Decrees 591 and 592. After the concession was revoked, the three railway lines were taken over by the consortium UGOFE, formed by private companies

Ferrovías Ferrovías S.A.C. is a privately owned company which, on 1 April 1994, took over the concession, granted by the Argentine government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of Carlos Menem, for the operation of the (metre gauge) ...

Metrovías Metrovías S.A. is an Argentine privately held company that operates the Metropolitan services of the Urquiza Line. 90% of Metrovías' shares are held by Grupo Roggio. Metrovías was also operator of the Buenos Aires Underground from 1995 to Dec ...

and

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, als ...

."La UGOFE se hará cargo de los servicios de las dos líneas ferroviarias"
''La Prensa''

References

External links

Official site
(Archive)
Pasajeros del Roca
a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

discussing on-going issues of the Roca Line {{Railway Companies in Argentina Defunct railway companies of Argentina Railway companies established in 1994 Railway companies disestablished in 2007 Rail transport in Buenos Aires Province