page_title: Ferrocarriles Argentinos
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Ferrocarriles Argentinos / Break-up and privatisation / Background
caption_attribution_description: Español: Carlos Menem, presidente de Argentina de 1989 a 1999 English: Carlos Menem, president of Argentina 1989-1999
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: Following a prolonged period of hyperinflation in the 1980s, accompanied by a steep increase in fiscal deficit and a sharp fall in reserves, the Argentine government, under the presidency of Carlos Menem from 1989, initiated a series of neoliberal reforms which included the privatisation of public utility companies (telephones, gas, electricity and water) together with the entire railway network.
  The plan was to break up the network into segments and to grant concessions to private companies for their operation through competitive bidding.  Freight and passenger services were separated and, since most of the intercity passenger services were not commercially attractive to the private sector, the government offered these to the provinces. The remaining passenger services in the city of Buenos Aires, including the five lines of the Metro, were potentially more viable and were treated separately.
caption: Under the Carlos Menem's administration FA was closed and all services privatised
exif: {}