This article needs to be updated.(October 2022) |
The Buenos Aires Underground has one of the most diverse metro fleets in the world, and has had some of the oldest models in operation on any network. The network began with a relatively standardised fleet, but throughout its over 100-year-long history, it has seen numerous purchases which have created cases where some lines operate numerous models. Recently there have been increased efforts to modernise and standardise the fleets, with large purchases from China CNR Corporation and Alstom.
Before the nationalisation of the railways and the formation of Subterráneos de Buenos Aires, the original lines of Buenos Aires Underground were built by three private companies, and each bought different rolling stock for their lines.
Line A was inaugurated in 1913 by the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company (AATC)—then owned by the Belgian company Sofina—who owned the vast majority of the city's tramways at that point. Two companies competed to provide the rolling stock of the line: the Belgian La Brugeoise et Nivelles and British United Electric Car Company, with the Belgian company ultimately winning the contract. [1] However 4 UEC Preston cars had been sent to the country and these more extravagant cars were kept in service on the line until the 1970s and were often used on special occasions. [2] The Brugeoise cars made up the entirety of the rolling stock of the line until 2013, retiring just before their 100-year anniversary. [3]
The Argentine company Lacroze Hermanos built Line B, originally designed to be an underground continuation of the Buenos Aires Central Tramway (today the Urquiza Line). The line has historically been significantly different from the others in terms of rolling stock since it uses third rail electrification instead of overhead lines and as such, it has been the most troublesome to standardise and has often had the most diverse rolling stock, with four different models circulating on its tracks at one point. Originally served by Metropolitan-Cammell cars from its opening in 1930, these were later reinforced by cars from the Osgood Bradley Car Company in the 1950s. Later on, two attempts were made by the state-owned Fabricaciones Militares to replace the rolling stock of the line, however these were never produced in enough numbers to replace all the cars on the line. It was only in 1996 that the line was standardised again when cars were bought second-hand from the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line in order to replace all the cars. This was also the first time in the history of the network that cars were bought second-hand.
Lines C, D and E were all built by the Hispanic-Argentine Company for Public Works and Finances (CHADOPyF) in the 1930s and 1940s and were thus the most straightforward. All the lines used German Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock from their inaugurations, though during the 1960s Spanish-built CAF-General Electrica Española were added to the lines. The CAF-GEE cars were designed to be highly compatible with the Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars in order to reduce maintenance costs. [4] [5] [6] [7] It was only in the 1980s that the rolling stock started to diversify on these lines when Fiat-Materfer cars began to be introduced in order to standardise all the lines of the network (with the exception of Line B) using this rolling stock, however not enough of these were built to replace the Brugeoise, CAF and Siemens cars, so the ended up being spread thinly and switched between lines as temporary stock since their introduction. [5]
The standardisation across lines was further reduced following privatisation in the 1990s when more attempts were made to replace the ageing Brugeoise and Siemens stocks with second hand purchases from Japan and the incorporation of the new Alstom Metropolis 100 Series rolling stock, none of which were purchased in enough numbers to make up the entirety of a line, let alone multiple lines on the network. [5] Only in 2010s were there moves towards re-standardising and modernising the fleet whilst retiring the ageing trains which had served since the opening of each respective line. Numerous purchases of new rolling stock have been made, along with the purchase of second hand rolling stock which the City Government claims is a necessity given the need to quickly incorporate trains in lines with rolling stock deficits.
Model | Photo | Years active | Country | Purchased New | Cars built/purchased | Former Lines |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
La Brugeoise | 1913–2013 | Yes | 125 | |||
UEC Preston [8] | 1913–1977 | Yes | 4 | |||
Metropolitan Cammell | 1930–1996 | Yes | 56 | |||
Osgood-Bradley | 1931–1996 | Yes | 20 | |||
Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel [9] [10] | 1934–2016 | [11] | Yes | 13 + 3 scrapped during construction | ||
Fabricaciones Militares | http://busarg.com.ar/fotogaleria/albums/userpics/35995.jpg [12] | 1965–1996 | Yes | 14 | ||
Siemens-Fabricaciones Militares [13] | 1977–1996 | Yes | 18 | |||
Siemens-Emepa-Alstom [9] [14] [15] [16] | 2014–2017 | Refurbished | 50 | |||
CAF 5000 [17] [18] | 2013–2018 | No | 36 | |||
Nagoya 250/300/700/1200 [19] | 1999–2020 | No | 78 | |||
CAF/General Eléctrica Española [12] | 1968–2022 | No | 56 |
The original La Brugeoise rolling stock has been maintained, some as exhibits and some being converted to 1500V to run tourist services on the line. [20] In December 2013 a law was passed which meant that the entire La Brugeoise fleet would receive protection status and would thus only be donated to organisations dedicated to their restoration and preservation. [21] The three surviving UEC Preston cars serve on the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway above-ground in the neighbourhood of Caballito. Two Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel also have been donated to the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway, but the fate of the rest of the fleet is still unclear. [22]
On 1 February 2018, the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway received a donation from SBASE consisting of a Metropolitan Cammell and a Siemens-Fabricaciones Militares. [23]
Rolling stock of the Buenos Aires Underground as of July 2024 [update] (may not be current for all models).
Model | Photo | Years active | Country | Purchased New | Cars built/purchased | Cars in operation | Former Lines | Current Lines |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fiat-Materfer | 1980–present | Yes | 105 [24] | 20 [25] | [26] | |||
Materfer [27] [28] | 1988–present | Yes | 17 | 13 | ||||
Mitsubishi Eidan 500 series [29] | 1996–present | No | 128 [30] | 96 [30] | ||||
Nagoya 5000 Series [31] | 2015–present | No | 30 | 30 | ||||
100 Series [32] | 2004–present | Yes | 96 | 96 | ||||
200 Series [33] [34] | 2013–present | Yes | 150 | 150 | (105) (45) | |||
CAF 6000 [35] [34] [36] | 2015–present | No | 72 | 72 | ||||
300 Series [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] | 2016-Present | Yes | 180 | 162 (being phased-in) | |
Green = current, Blue = future, Yellow = being phased-out.
In the mid-2010s, the Underground was in a transitional period where temporary rolling stock was serving on numerous lines while orders arrived from China and Brazil. After these cars arrived in 2015 and 2016, the network had a far less diverse rolling stock, with Line A being composed entirely of CITIC-CNR trains, while lines D and H were made up entirely of Alstom Metropolis trains. The older Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars were completely retired from the network, thus reducing the average age of the rolling stock significantly. With this move towards standardisation, some of the newer trains have received series numbers: the original Alstom Metropolis trains on Line D have been dubbed the 100 Series, the CITIC-CNR trains are the 200 Series, while the newer Alstom Metropolis trains for lines H and D are the 300 Series. [44]
Line B are composed of CAF cars purchased from the Madrid Metro while retiring the Eidan 500 cars. Line C is using a variety of Nagoya cars, while Line E is using Fiat-Materfer cars and refurbished Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars, retiring the CAF/GEE cars. No plans have been made public about the long-term intentions with these lines, though Line C has received a modern communications-based train control system in preparation for newer rolling stock. [45] It has not been stated what rolling stock will be used on Line F, though the usage of platform screen doors on the line will require modern rolling stock and automated trains are being considered. [46]
Until 2013, Line A had been served by La Brugeoise cars and a small number UEC Preston cars, which were retired prior to the Brugeoise cars. These were withdrawn from service on 12 January 2013, 11 months before their 100th anniversary and replaced by 45 new 200 Series cars built by China CNR Corporation. [47] However, the Chinese cars were not sufficient to cover the entire fleet of the line, so it had to be supplemented by a temporary fleet of 35 Fiat-Materfer cars, which was still not enough to replace the 120 La Brugeoise units and thus Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel stock reformed by the Emepa Group was also added to the line to make up the numbers. [48] Furthermore, the replacement of the rolling stock coincided with the opening of the San José de Flores and San Pedrito stations and the line was still left with a rolling stock defect, causing a decline in passenger numbers. [49]
A further 105 CNR cars were ordered in 2014 so that the line would be served in its entirety by 150 of these 200 Series cars, and so the temporary replacement rolling stock could be moved to Line E in time for its extension to Retiro. [33] The cars steadily arrived into the country since 2015 and have been incorporated into the line, with the last of the CNR units arriving during 2016 and 2017. Line A's rolling stock now consists entirely of these models. [33] [50]
Line B has been historically the most diverse of the network given its significantly different characteristics to other lines and thus its rolling stock has not been uniform for most of its history. This was addressed in 1996 when rolling stock was purchased from the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line in order to make the line uniform. This was also the first time in the network's history that rolling stock was purchased second hand. In 2003, two stations were added to the line, followed by another two in 2013, meaning that the already old rolling stock was now also stretched to capacity. In 2011, it was announced that the Madrid Metro had sold some of its 5000 series trains to the Underground, which had been in operation in Madrid since 1974, and entered service in 2013 in order to make up shortfalls caused by the line's extensions. The 36 Spanish cars were of lower quality and reliability than the Japanese trains, despite being newer, and suffered a series of mechanical issues following their integration into the line. [17]
In July 2013, Madrid Metro sold 73 of its 6000 series cars (which entered service in Madrid in 1998) to Buenos Aires for $38.8 million in order to retire the rest of the Japanese-built trains. [51] [52] [53] [54] A further 13 of these cars were purchased for $7.8 million, bringing the total up to 86. [35] The purchase of the CAF 6000 rolling stock has been met with criticism due to major alterations that were made to the line to accommodate the cars' height, as well as the fact that the second-hand units were not significantly cheaper than simply purchasing new rolling stock, and were not of particularly good quality, unlike the new Line A cars. [55] [56] The biggest drawback of these cars is that, unlike the Eidan 500 and CAF 5000 cars, they use overhead electrification instead of third rail, and were thus initially unsuitable for the line. They had to be adapted to use both third rail and overhead electrification for what was by this point three models of rolling stock being used on the line. [35] Similarly, changing to overhead lines would mean that the potential for an overground branch of the line from Federico Lacroze using Urquiza Line tracks would be lost since that line also uses third rail electrification. Following a series of setbacks caused by the power inefficiency of these trains, as of August 2015 it was unclear if they would be used on the line or moved elsewhere and new plans drawn up for the line which would not involve Spanish rolling stock. [57]
Line C was originally served by Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock, which were replaced in 2007 by Nagoya rolling stock transferred from Line D as 100 Series cars arrived on that line. [58] These cars began to be refurbished in 2014, equipped with air conditioning, new lighting and upholstery, among other changes. [59] The refurbishment of the 78 Nagoya cars was completed in 2015–2016. [60] From 2014, 30 additional cars, belonging to the newer 5000 Series, were purchased from the Nagoya Municipal Subway and arrived in the country. [61]
With the incorporation of these trains in 2015, the line has 108 Nagoya cars, though from different series and refurbished to increase the uniformity among them. No long term plans have been made as to what rolling stock the line will use when it is modernised, however the line has been updated with Trainguard Communications-based train control to allow for automatic train operation, meaning that it could be served by such trains. [45]
Line D was originally served by Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock, and then by the CAF/GEE cars from 1968. In 1999, cars from the Nagoya Municipal Subway were purchased second hand from Japan and incorporated into the line. At the time of the incorporation of the Nagoya cars, numerous Alstom Metropolis 100 Series cars were purchased and built in Brazil and Argentina in 2001 with the intention of incorporating them into Line A and replace the Brugeoise rolling stock. However, when these arrived, they were ultimately put in service on Line D where they remain to this day. More Alstom cars of the same type continued to be purchased in that decade up until 2009, making a total of 96 cars. [32]
The remaining Nagoya cars were moved to Line C when the Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars were retired from that line in 2007 and were replaced with Fiat-Materfer cars, so the line continued to have two models of rolling stock. To make the rolling stock more uniform, 24 more modern 300 Series Alstom Metropolis cars were ordered in 2013 and arrived in 2015, retiring the Materfer cars from the line and meaning that the line is entirely composed of 120 Alstom cars. [37] However, in September 2015, the city presented a new modernisation plan which showed 84 new cars for the line instead of 24. [39] Beginning in 2014, the existing 100 Series cars began to receive a mid-life refurbishment, changing the upholstery and adding air conditioning units to the cars. [62] In early 2016, the final figure had been fixed at 60 new cars. By 2017, the fleet was composed of 156 Alstom Metropolis cars, retiring the Fiat-Materfer cars from the line. [63] In June 2017, the first six Alstom 300 started operating in the line. [64] After the project to add CBTC to the line in 2024, Line D's fleet was made up of exclusively Alstom 300 cars, with the Alstom 100 cars previously assigned to the line were overhauled and transferred to Line E.
The line was the last to be inaugurated with Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock, however these were replaced by Fiat-Materfer cars in the 1980s. The Materfer cars were later sent to Line D and Line D's CAF-GEE rolling stock was put to use on Line E, where it remains until this day, making up the entirety of the rolling stock on the Line. [4] [5] After the new 200 Series and 300 Series rolling stock arrived for Lines A, D and H and the three lines are composed entirely of these two models, the CAF-GEE rolling stock has been retired from Line E and replaced once again with Materfer since the refurbished Siemens by Alstom and the Emepa Group were more than 80 years old and their performance was poor. [65] This change occurred before the completion of the line's extension to Retiro. [25] [66] [67] Today, the line continues to use its Materfer cars, as well as refurbished Alstom 100 cars displaced from Line D.
When Line H was opened in 2007, its short length meant that it could be temporarily served by Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars until it was extended enough to warrant the incorporation of new rolling stock. For this purpose, 120 new Alstom Metropolis 300 Series cars were ordered from Brazil and began arriving in Buenos Aires in August 2015 in time for the line's extension northwards to Santa Fe. [44] The 20 trains with 6 cars each make up the entirety of the rolling stock of the line as it continues to be extended. [68]
The first 300 Series cars were put into service in July 2016, with the remainder being phased in throughout 2016 and 2017, increasing frequencies to an average of 3 minutes as a result of the increased number of trains as well as the use of Communication Based Train Control (CBTC). [69] [70] The incorporation of these cars also meant the retirement of the Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars, which were the oldest serving stock on the network. [71]
When the Premetro was opened in 1987, it was to be served by trams manufactured by the Argentine company Materfer. However, the cars were not ready for the line's inauguration, so it was briefly served by La Brugeoise cars re-bodied by the Emepa Group. The re-bodied cars were nicknamed Lagartos (Lizards) due to their green colour and were soon retired. [72] In 1988, the Materfer trams arrived on the line and the cars continue to serve on it to this day. Originally, 25 cars were to be built since there were to be two Premetro lines, however, only of these 17 cars were built for the E2 line since the E1 line was not built. [73]
Three other lines are planned for the network, however the only line which has been approved for construction as of 2015 is Line F. Construction was due to begin in 2015 so it is yet unknown what rolling stock will be used, though they will be of modern characteristics, with platform screen doors and automated trains being considered. [46]
The Buenos Aires Underground, locally known as Subte, is a rapid transit system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first section of this network opened in 1913, making it the 13th earliest subway network in the world and the first underground railway in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere, and the Spanish-speaking world, with the Madrid Metro opening nearly six years later, in 1919. As of 2023, Buenos Aires is the only Argentine city with a metro system.
Line A is the oldest line of the Buenos Aires Underground. Opened to the public on 1 December 1913, it was the first underground line in South America, the Southern Hemisphere and the Spanish-speaking world. It made Buenos Aires the 13th city in the world to have an underground transport service. The line stretches 9.8 km (6.1 mi) from Plaza de Mayo and San Pedrito and runs under the full length of the Avenida de Mayo and part of the Avenida Rivadavia, and is used by 258,000 people per day.
Line B of the Buenos Aires Underground runs 11.75 kilometres (7.30 mi) from Leandro N. Alem to Juan Manuel de Rosas in Villa Urquiza. Line B opened to the public on 17 October 1930.
Line C of the Buenos Aires Underground, that runs from Retiro to Constitución terminus, opened on 9 November 1934, and it has a length of 4.3 km (2.7 mi). It runs under Lima Sur, Bernardo de Irigoyen, Carlos Pellegrini, Esmeralda, la Plaza San Martín and Avenida Ramos Mejia streets. It not only connects to every other line on the system, but its termini at Retiro and Constitución also connect it to some of the most important commuter rail networks in Buenos Aires, such as the Mitre and Roca lines and also long-distance passenger services. It is thus an important artery in Buenos Aires' transport system. At the same time, it is also the shortest line in both terms of length and number of stations.
Line D of the Buenos Aires Underground runs from Catedral to Congreso de Tucumán. The line opened on 3 June 1937 and has been expanded to the north several times. The line is currently 11 km long and has 16 stations, while running approximately parallel to the city's coastline.
Line H is a line of the Buenos Aires Underground. The first phase, between Plaza Once and Caseros, which opened on 18 October 2007, currently stretches over 8.8 km between Hospitales and Facultad de Derecho stations. It is the first entirely new line built in Buenos Aires since the opening of Line E on 20 June 1944.
Line E of the Buenos Aires Underground runs from Retiro to Plaza de los Virreyes, a total distance of 12 km. Opened in 1944, the Line E was the last completely new line to be added to the Buenos Aires Underground, until 2007 when Line H was opened. The line has a history of being re-routed and extended due to having been historically the line with the lowest passenger numbers on the network.
The Premetro is a 7.4-kilometer long (4.6 mi) light rail line that runs along the outskirts of Buenos Aires, connecting with the Buenos Aires Underground line E, at Plaza de los Virreyes station and then to General Savio, with a short branch to Centro Cívico. It opened in 1987 and is operated by Metrovías. Originally, the Premetro was to include many more lines, but shortly after the privatisation of the railways the projects were postponed and never materialised and only "Premetro E2" was built.
La Brugeoise cars were Buenos Aires Underground (Subte) Line A rolling stock since its inauguration in 1913 till 2013 when replaced by new Chinese stock. They were built by the Belgian railway rolling stock manufacturer La Brugeoise et Nivelles between 1911 and 1919 for the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company's first underground line. They were originally designed to run both as metro and tramway cars, but they were refurbished in 1927 for underground use only. They became the oldest underground rolling stock in commercial service in the world as well as a tourist attraction and part of Buenos Aires cultural heritage.
Corredores Ferroviarios was an Argentine private company that operated the Mitre and San Martín railway services in Buenos Aires Province for about one year until the Government of Argentina rescinded the agreement with the company in March 2015. Since then, the Mitre and San Martín line are operated by State-owned company Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (SOFSE).
Materfer 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 subsidiary until 1980 when Sevel Argentina took over Fiat vehicles.
Emepa Group S.A. is an Argentine manufacturer of railway vehicles and owner of Ferrovías, with headquarters located in the city of Buenos Aires. It had formerly owned Ferrocentral, which ran services from Buenos Aires to Córdoba and San Miguel de Tucumán on the Mitre Network, however the state-owned company SOFSE took over these services in 2014 and the subsidiary now remains inactive.
The first trams in Buenos Aires began operating in 1863 in what quickly became a vast network of tramways with the city being known as the "City of Trams" for having the highest tramway-to-population ratio in the world. In the 1920s, Buenos Aires had 875 km (544 mi) of tramways and 99 tram lines using 3000 carriages running throughout the city. By 1963, the vast majority of the network began to be dismantled, though some minor tram services continue in the city today.
The UEC Preston is a tram/subway car built by the British manufacturer United Electric Car Company for the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company (AATC) in 1912 for use on its then newly built underground tramway in Buenos Aires, which was later to become Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground. Only 4 trams were built and they served on the line up until their retirement in 1977.
The Fiat-Materfer Buenos Aires Underground rolling stock was built by the Argentine company Materfer - then a subsidiary of Fiat Ferroviaria - beginning in 1980 and continuing on through that decade. It was originally conceived to standardise the diverse rolling stock of the Buenos Aires Underground with the use of one model throughout all the lines. However, with the economic and political turmoil faced in the country during and following the collapse of the National Reorganisation Process junta in 1983, its production ended up being far more limited. During the 2010s, the cars were used as temporary stock for two lines, being phased out as newer models arrived from overseas.
The 200 Series is a set of underground cars manufactured by China CNR Corporation and CITIC Construction for use on Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground in Argentina. The cars replace the 100-year-old La Brugeoise cars which operated on the line up until 2013. The Buenos Aires Underground ordered 45 of these units, followed by a further 105 which have been put into service on the line.
The CSR EMU is a series of electric multiple unit cars manufactured by CSR Corporation Limited for use on Buenos Aires' commuter rail network. As of 2015, the trains operated on three of the city's lines and 705 cars were manufactured, with each line using a different number of cars per train. They were created for use on lines electrified using both third rail and overhead lines.
The Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel is an underground car formerly used on the Buenos Aires Underground first built by Siemens-Schuckert and Orenstein & Koppel in 1934, 1937 and 1944 with a smaller number of cars built in Argentina during the 1950s. The Siemens O&K rolling stock made up the entirety of the trains used on the three lines built by the Hispanic-Argentine Company for Public Works and Finances (CHADOPyF) and has since served on every line of the Underground from 1934 to 2016, with cars refurbished by the Emepa Group and Alstom continued to function on the network till 2017.
The 100 Series are a series of underground railway cars manufactured by Alstom in Brazil and Argentina for use on the Buenos Aires Underground. They are used on Line D of the network, where they make up the vast majority of the fleet, serving alongside some 300 Series and Fiat-Materfer cars. Since 2019, some units have also been used on the Line E.
The 300 Series are a set of underground cars manufactured by Alstom in Brazil for use on the Buenos Aires Underground. They are used on Line H of the network, and more have been introduced on Line D where they operate alongside the similar 100 Series.