page_title: Buenos Aires Western Railway
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Buenos Aires Western Railway / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Ramos Mejía train station of BA Western Railway. Inaugurate 1858, has been operating since then.
context_page_description: The Buenos Aires Western Railway, inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network which was developed over the following years. The locomotive La Porteña, built by the British firm E.B.Wilson and Company in Leeds, was the first train to travel on this line.
  The route initially measured 10 km, stretching from Del Parque station to Floresta station, which at that time was located in San José de Flores village, but is now within Buenos Aires city limits. The rails were laid along what are now Lavalle, Enrique S. Discépolo, Avenida Corrientes and Avenida Pueyrredón, and then followed the route of the current Domingo Sarmiento Railway line towards Floresta.
  Although the construction of this line was proposed by a group of private individuals known as the "Sociedad del Camino-Ferrocarril al Oeste", it was financed by the province of Buenos Aires, which was at that time an independent state of the Argentine Confederation. In 1863 the province became sole owner of the railway line.
context_section_description: In 1854, while Buenos Aires was an independent state of the Argentine Confederation, governor Pastor Obligado awarded the Buenos Aires Western Railroad Society a grant for constructing a railway, from the city of Buenos Aires towards the west. This grant was fulfilled by a bill presented on 9 January by a financing committee consisting of Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, Bartolomé Mitre and Mariano Billinghurst.
  The railway's importance had already been pointed out by Juan Bautista Alberdi, who wrote in his work Basis and starting point for the Political Organization of the Argentina Republic that "the railway is the means of turning around what the colonizing Spaniards did on this continent". Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Justo José de Urquiza had also defended the idea. On 17 September 1853 the above-mentioned Railway Society, formed by a group of traders, conscious of the progress in communications which its construction would lead to and the demonstration of power it would represent, requested the grant for constructing a railway which would serve both passengers and cargo and whose cars would be pulled by a steam engine. However, in 1854, when work was about to begin, the Society asked to be exempted from using steam engines arguing that it would be more convenient "to use horses, so cheap in this country, instead of coal, which is so expensive" (this method of powering trains had already been used in Europe). The motive behind this request is not clear, but it may have been because most of the population had never seen a locomotive and believed that this would be dangerous for the surrounding buildings because of the resulting vibration, or perhaps the company considered locomotives to be too costly and the expected number of passengers were low. It must be taken into account that the western railway had no financial guarantee of minimum earnings, as the soon-established British railways would have (among other benefits). They would only earn what they obtained from their own activities. In any case, steam engines were finally purchased.
  A law sanctioned by Buenos Aires province's Chamber of Representatives established the donation of public land, free import of supplies and tax exemptions.
  Among the engineers who worked on the project were Verger (who created the original plans), Mouillard (a French engineer who was concerned with levelling the route) and, later, William Bragge, who had already built the first railway in Rio de Janeiro. 150 workers were also hired.
caption: Ramos Mejía station was opened in 1858 and is still active.
exif: {}