page_title: Ferrocarriles Argentinos
section_title: Long-distance services closure
hierarchical_section_title: Ferrocarriles Argentinos / Break-up and privatisation / Long-distance services closure
caption_attribution_description: Español: Tren Gran Capitán de Ferrocarriles Argentinos saliendo de Federico Lacroze hacia Posadas. Año 1990.7928-1 Federico Lacroze W
context_page_description: 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.
  FA managed both, passenger and freight services, including long-distance and commuter rail trains in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires.
  The company was broken up under the government of Carlos Menem following the privatisation of the railways; however in 2015 the government of Cristina Kirchner revived the brand for use on state-owned railways.
context_section_description: The only rail line catalogued as "profitable" was the Constitución-Mar del Plata section.
  On March 10, 1993, president Menem signed the decree for which all the long-distance passenger services were definitely closed. Some of the provinces that lost their connection with Buenos Aires were Salta, Jujuy, Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Misiones, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis, Catamarca and La Rioja.
  The closure caused many villages became isolated from the main cities of Argentina and younger inhabitants departed from their born towns looking for better opportunities. This happened in cities such as La Banda, Laguna Paiva, San Cristóbal, Navarro, Las Marianas among many others. While in 1960 trains had carried 539 million of passengers, thirty years after the number decreased to 264 million. Between 1991 and 1992 urban and inter-city services were cancelled due to lack of locomotives to run. In San Martín and Roca lines trains had only two coaches in poor conditions. In addition, railway unions made sudden strikes that left passengers abandoned midway. During the last year of state administration there were 239,000 services cancelled or delayed.
  After the closure the National government offered the provinces to reactivate railway lines at their own expense. Provinces that reached an agreement with the central government to operate their services were Buenos Aires (establishing its own company, Ferrobaires), Tucumán (with Tucumán Ferrocarriles running trains since 1997), Río Negro (Servicios Ferroviarios Patagónico, still operating), Córdoba, La Pampa (also with services by Ferrobaires) and Chubut. Likewise, the government also transferred some branches to the provinces, such as Viedma-Bariloche and Ingeniero Jacobbaci-Esquel to Río Negro and Chubut (so the railway crossed both provinces); Córdoba-Cruz del Eje to Córdoba Province. Salta received the Tren a las Nubes and Mendoza took over Transandine Railway. In all the cases, the procedures were ruled by Law n° 2.873.
caption: The Gran Capitán, long-distance service to Misiones province, circa 1990
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