page_title: Puerto Deseado Railway
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Deseado Railway / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: Español: La estación Las Heras en noviembre de 1934
context_page_description: The Puerto Deseado and Colonia Las Heras Railway was a State-owned railway company that ran between the cities of Puerto Deseado to Colonia Las Heras in Santa Cruz Province. The 283-km broad gauge railway was established with the intention of encouraging settlement in Patagonia, which was sparsely populated at that point. The railway also contributed to the commercialisation of wool in the region.
  The railway was considered the southernmost passenger railway in the world, due to other lines of the region focusing on exploitation and transport of natural resources rather than operating passenger services.
context_section_description: The construction of the line was promulgated by Law N° 5559 in 1908, during José Figueroa Alcorta's presidency.
  Lines to be built were as follows:
  Puerto San Antonio (Rio Negro) to Nahuel Huapi lake;
  Puerto Deseado to link with line to Nahuel Huapi, with a branch to Comodoro Rivadavia that crossed Colonia Sarmiento. Other branches to Buenos Aires were also included in the project.
  The ambitious project planned to build a railway that crossed Patagonia to the northwest, then joining with the San Antonio Oeste-Bariloche line. Nevertheless, the line was not extended. Some versions stated that the railway was not expanded due to British settlers' interests in preserving the Patagonia region only for sheep farming. Other versions stated that livestock company "La Argentina Southern Land Company" refused the construction of a line when they realised the poor quality of the land, which would be used to finance the construction.
  Other reasons for the cancellation of the project were the crisis caused by the World War I and some politicians that questioned the National Government's designation of funds for southern enterprises instead of sending them to the Pampa region, as well as the death of Roque Sáenz Peña in 1914.
caption: Las Heras terminus, 11 Nov 1934.
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