page_title: General Roca Railway
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: General Roca Railway / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Boca de la Zanja station, part of Central Chubut Railway. Español: Estación Boca de la Zanja del Ferrocarril Central del Chubut
context_page_description: The General Roca Railway is a 5 ft 6 in broad gauge railway in Argentina which runs from Constitución station in Buenos Aires to the south of the country through the provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Neuquén and Río Negro. It was also one of the six state-owned Argentine railway divisions formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the railway network in 1948, being named after former president Julio Argentino Roca. The six companies were managed by Ferrocarriles Argentinos which was later broken up during the process of railway privatisation beginning in 1991 during Carlos Menem's presidency.
  The Roca Railway is currently operated by State owned companies Trenes Argentinos and Ferrobaires while freight transport is run by private companies Ferrosur Roca and Ferroexpreso Pampeano.
context_section_description: The first company to build a railway at the south of Buenos Aires was British-owned Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway, which inaugurated its first section Constitución railway station to Jeppener in 1865, extending its rail tracks to the city of Zapala in Río Negro Province and Carmen de Patagones in Buenos Aires.
  The BAGSR was one of the largest companies with 8,149 km. of track at the time of its nationalisation in 1948. The Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway (acquired by the BAGSR in 1898) was another company that built lines in the Buenos Aires Province, having been inaugurated in 1872.
  At the beginning of the 20th century the Government of Argentina had established the Argentine State Railway, which focused on building railway lines in several regions of Argentina. With the purpose of helping to populate Patagonia and to contribute to the commercial development of the Argentina's southern provinces, the ASR built lines there through its subsidiary Ferrocarriles Patagónicos. The first railway built was the Puerto Deseado Railway, opened in 1911 in order to contribute to the commercialization of wool in the region.
  The Argentine State opened other lines across Patagonia, most notably the Patagonian Express, familiarly known as La Trochita that made its inaugural trip in 1935.
  The BAGSR also took over the section built and operated by the Bahía Blanca and North Western Railway that extended to Darragueira and Toay in La Pampa Province.
caption: Boca de Zanja station of Chubut.
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