Argentina High-Speed Rail | |
---|---|
Overview | |
Native name | Tren de Alta Velocidad de Argentina |
Status | Cancelled [1] |
Owner | Government of Argentina |
Locale | Buenos Aires Córdoba Santa Fe |
Termini | |
Stations | San Nicolás, Rosario, Villa María |
Service | |
Type | High-speed rail |
Technical | |
Line length | 710 km (440 mi) |
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge |
Operating speed | 320 km/h (200 mph) |
The Buenos Aires–Rosario–Córdoba high-speed railway (Spanish: Tren de Alta Velocidad de Argentina – TAVe) was a project designed to link the Argentine cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba through a 710 km (440 mi) high-speed rail network. The plan, announced by then-President Néstor Kirchner during a press conference at the Casa Rosada on 26 April 2006, [2] would have been the first in Argentina [3] operating at up to 320 km/h (200 mph). [4] The entire project was dismissed due to the financial crisis of 2007–08. [5]
Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area has a population of more than 13 million, almost one third of the national total. [6] It is the economic and political center of Argentina, and its main international entry point.
Rosario, located about 310 km (190 mi) north-northwest of the capital, is the third-largest city and a major port, with a metropolitan population of 1.3 million. [6] It is part of the agricultural and industrial core of the littoral region.
Córdoba, with a population around 1.4 million, [6] is located about 710 km (440 mi) from Buenos Aires, near the geographical center of Argentina. It is the second most populated metropolitan area, and a cultural, touristic, and industrial center.
Altogether, the three cities include 15 million inhabitants, or more than a third of the country's overall population of 40 million, while representing the three major cities. Rosario and Cordoba are vital centers in the farm sector, which has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to high commodity prices.
By the moment the project was announced in 2006, the main form of transportation between these three cities was by road, through National Route 9 (4 lane Highway from Buenos Aires to Rosario and 2 lane route from Rosario to Cordoba -Rosario to Cordoba highway is expected to be finished by 2009-), followed far behind by air travel. The high speed rail would act as an essential component in the revival of railways in Argentina, which would have major impact on the economic development of the region for both faster passenger and cargo connections.
A high-speed electric train operating at up to 320 km/h (200 mph) with overhead catenary power lines on a standard gauge track of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), it would run mainly on single-track, but with 55 km (34 mi) of double-track between Buenos Aires and Rosario to enable the nine trains/day on this section to pass one another at high speed and then to Córdoba on a new single-track alignment. Alstom was the company chosen to provide eight 509-passenger double-deck TGVs equipped with ETCS Level 2 signalling. The new line should have provided a Buenos Aires—Rosario journey time of 85 minutes (for comparison, an intercity passenger bus takes about four hours), with Córdoba reached 90 minutes later.
The new train would link the cities along the central corridor through the agricultural heartland of Argentina. According to the current plan, there will be 20 train services daily, carrying about 7,500 passengers. Several intermediate stops are planned between the main ones, most likely in the cities of Pilar, [7] Campana, San Pedro, San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Cañada de Gómez, Marcos Juárez, Bell Ville and Villa María.
The total cost of the Buenos Aires—Rosario—Córdoba line was calculated at US$ 4 billion. Four European firms presented themselves as bidders: Alstom (French), Siemens (German), CAF (Spanish) and Impregilo (Italian). Pre-contractual conditions stated that the national state will pay for the whole sum, but the firm in charge of the construction will finance 50%. [8] When technical and financial bids were due in March 2007 only the Veloxia grouping of Alstom, Isolux Corsan, Iecsa and Emepa Group came forward, and the consortium was selected as preferred bidder on 20 June 2007.
Veloxia was formally selected on 16 January 2008, with a contract to be signed 'in the next few months'. [9] Alstom would supply eight double-deck TGV trains called 'Cobra'. [4] while IECSA would undertake civil engineering, Isolux Corsan and Emepa Group would construct the track.
The Argentine state secretary of transport, Ricardo Jaime, announced on 27 March 2008 that the finance minister Martín Lousteau and the consortium led by the French company Alstom approved a resolution to finance the Buenos Aires—Rosario—Cordoba High Speed Train (TAVe). The credit line was provided by the French bank Natixis, covering 100% of the project. The financing scheme anticipates an investment of approximately A$ 12,500 million (€2 billion or US$4 billion), to be financed with a long-term credit of 30 years that would be guaranteed with the delivery of the public titles.
The project was finally dismissed in December 2012. [1] French company Alstom, that had been won the tender to build high-speed rail, admitted to have paid bribes to the Argentine authorities. [10]
The latest news about TAVe is the launching of the bidding process [13] for a new line to the seaside beach resort city and major fishing port of Mar del Plata, [14] 400 km (250 mi) south of Buenos Aires city, though in this case, from Constitución railway station, in the central southeast part of the city.
According to the plan, the new route would enable an average speed of 250 km/h (160 mph) and a maximum of 320 km/h (200 mph). It would only have stops in Dolores and Chascomús and complete the journey to Mar del Plata in less than two hours. Today, the service is disrupted by serious deficiencies and delays and takes over seven hours, more than the service provided in the '50s by El Marplatense with speeds of up to 90+ mph (150 km/h) making the run in 3 hrs 45 min in then cutting edge Budd Co.-built formations.
The project was heavily criticised by Poder Ciudadano, the Argentine dependency of the worldwide anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, for being disproportionately expensive relative to the number of people benefitting from it. Poder Ciudadano also expressed its disapproval at the Argentine government's diversion of funds away from the already under-funded Buenos Aires metropolitan rail-service, which is used every day by millions of citizens. . [15] Later, when Poder Ciudadano asked for the expedient of the bidding, it was rejected in two occasions. [16]
Transport in Argentina is mainly based on a complex network of routes, crossed by relatively inexpensive long-distance buses and by cargo trucks. The country also has a number of national and international airports. The importance of the long-distance train is minor today, though in the past it was widely used and is now regaining momentum after the re-nationalisation of the country's commuter and freight networks. Fluvial transport is mostly used for cargo.
Córdoba is a city in central Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about 700 km (435 mi) northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province and the second-most populous city in Argentina after Buenos Aires, with about 1.6 million urban inhabitants according to the 2020 census. A European settlement was founded on 6 July 1573 by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, who named it after Córdoba, Spain. It was one of the early Spanish colonial capitals of the region of present-day Argentina. The National University of Córdoba, the oldest university of the country, was founded in 1613 by the Jesuit Order, and Córdoba has earned the nickname La Docta.
Ferrocarriles Argentinos 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 first presidential term, and transformed into the Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado Argentino.
Ferrocentral was an Argentine private railway company, with a name being a portmanteau 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 northern Argentina, running on Ferrocarril Mitre's 5 ft 6 in Indian gauge tracks.
Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA) (In English: Trains of Buenos Aires) was a private company that operated commuter rail services over the 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge Sarmiento and Mitre lines of Buenos Aires. The company, owned by Claudio and Mario Cirigliano, also operated long-distance services on the General Mitre Railway to central-western Argentina and on the General Urquiza Railway to northern Argentina and Uruguay on the international Tren de los Pueblos Libres.
The Tranvía del Este, also known as the Puerto Madero Tramway, was a 12-block "demonstration" light rail line in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in operation from 2007 to 2012. It used French-built Alstom Citadis 302 trams on loan, initially from Mulhouse, France, and later from Madrid, Spain, and was operated by the rail company Ferrovías.
Sarratea is a railway station located in the north of the city of Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. Although no longer active, the station is currently managed by private company Nuevo Central Argentino, which operates the line for freight services.
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The Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway (BA&R) was a British-owned railway company that built and operated a 5 ft 6 in broad gauge railway network in Argentina, where it was known as the "Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Rosario". Originally thought as a line from Buenos Aires to Campana, it then extended to the provinces of Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, and Tucumán.
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The Belgrano Sur line is an Argentine 1,000 mmmetre gauge commuter rail service in the Greater Buenos Aires area, currently operated by state-owned enterprise Trenes Argentinos. The Belgrano Sur runs over tracks and through stations built by the Franco–Belgian-owned Compañía General de Buenos Aires and British Midland companies at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Argentine railway network consisted of a 47,000 km (29,204 mi) network at the end of the Second World War and was, in its time, one of the most extensive and prosperous in the world. However, with the increase in highway construction, there followed a sharp decline in railway profitability, leading to the break-up in 1993 of Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA), the state railroad corporation. During the period following privatisation, private and provincial railway companies were created and resurrected some of the major passenger routes that FA once operated.
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