The General Manuel Belgrano Railway (FCGMB) (Spanish: Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano), named after the Argentine politician and military leader Manuel Belgrano, is a railway and the longest of the Argentine system. It was one of the six State-owned Argentine railway companies formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the railway network in 1948.
Retiro station is the railway's terminus in Buenos Aires, from which the railway runs to many provinces in the Centre and North of Argentina, such as Santa Fe, Córdoba, Tucumán, La Rioja, Catamarca, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Jujuy.
In the metropolitan section of the city of Buenos Aires, Ferrocarril Belgrano is divided into two lines, Belgrano Norte and Belgrano Sur, currently operated by Private companies Ferrovías and Argentren respectively.
Passenger trains of Norte Line are only run to Villa Rosa in Pilar Partido. From then on, freight services run to the rest of the network, operated by State-owned company Belgrano Cargas. Some short-distance passenger services are also operated by another State company, Trenes Argentinos Operadora Ferroviaria, in Chaco Province.
Ferrocarril Belgrano ran passenger services to La Quiaca and even to Bolivia although those branches were closed in the 1980s or early 1990s. There are projects to run passenger services between La Quiaca and San Salvador de Jujuy, both cities in Jujuy Province.
The main lines departed from Retiro station in Buenos Aires to the north through the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Chaco, Formosa, Salta, Jujuy, San Luis, Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja and Catamarca.
History
Background
In 1876, Ferrocarril Central Norte started services from Córdoba to Tucumán. It was the first metre gauge in Argentina, mainly due to economic reasons. It had been built by the Argentine State to expand Central Argentine Railway network (Rosario-Córdoba), a British-owned company by then.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the national government had built several metre gauge railway lines, most of them in the North of Argentina. The Argentine State Railway owned a 3,490 km length network. The most important were the Central Norte and Argentino del Norte, as part of other lines in Patagonia and Littoral regions.
In 1905 the Congress of Argentina authorised the construction of a line from Cerrillos to Rosario de Lerma in Salta Province as a railway projected to get access to the Puna de Atacama. One year after other project proposed to get access through Quebrada de Humahuaca was suggested, but works were not carried out.
Projects were revived several times but it was not until 1921 when the Argentine State Railway company started the construction of a line. Works -directed by American engineer Richard Maury- continued until 1930 when the overthrow of Hipólito Yrigoyen caused their interruption with only a few kilometers built, while Maury was fired by the de facto government. Works resumed in 1936, reaching the cities of Olacapato (1941), Unquillal (1944) and Tolar Grande (1945). President Juan Perón encouraged works to continue after he became president that same year.
In January 1948 works were finished at last and the line was opened, joining Argentina and Chile in Socompa. Trains ran along 29 bridges, 21 tunnels, 13 viaducts, 2 zig-zags and 2 spirals. In 1972 the line started to operate as a touristic service, under the commercial name "Tren a las Nubes" (Train to the Clouds)
Nationalisation
After the World War II finished, British and French-owned railway companies in Argentina began proceedings with the purpose of selling their railways due to financial problems to operate those services. Finally on March 1, 1948, all the foreign railway companies in Argentina were nationalised under the Juan Perón's administration, creating the State-owned company "Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado Argentino (EFEA)", then renamed to Ferrocarriles Argentinos, taking over all the railway lines of Argentina, including passenger and freight services.
From then on, a restructuring of the entire Argentine rail network was carried out, given the lines local heroes' names. As a result, several former British and French companies, such as Compañía Gral. de Buenos Aires, Central Norte, Argentino del Norte, Mildland and Provincial de Santa Fe became part of the same network, renamed "Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano" to honor Manuel Belgrano, hero of the War of independence and the creator of the flag of Argentina.