The rest go onto Moreno to complete the one and a quarter hour journey.Įl Sarmiento is an example of a privately run system in which consumers have no choice. They are bunched together as the turn-gates fail to cope.
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Or petty criminals on platforms, reaching through open windows and stealing a lady’s handbag as the train pulls out.Īt Merlo, three stops from the end of the line, half the passengers get off to make the connection to Lobus. Stopped at stations, it is common to hear of thieves grabbing a mobile phone and jumping off the train as the electronic doors lock shut. They leave religious cards with messages from Saints on passengers’ knees in the hope of exchanging them for milk and bread money. Raggedly dressed children whale in and out of the crowds. There’s etiquette amongst them, and each respects the other as they take turns to shout their pitch. Throughout the journey salespeople enter the packed carriages to flog anything from chocolate, to screwdrivers, to fake CDs. Passengers will always offer a seat to someone carrying a small child though a little piece of chivalry still prevalent in Argentina.
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The aisles in the train are nearly always full to the brim, even in the bicycle carriage, where dope smokers spread out to smoke their marijuana. To the south and west of the city are also the city’s poorest suburbs. The Julio Roca line to the south and Sarmiento to the west are underfunded, and widely regarded as the worst. Some areas have suffered more than others though, and difference in quality of the six commuter lines serving the capital city is noticeable. And despite President Nestor Kirchner’s commitment to the railway in 2003, it has never recovered. Privatisation during President Carlos Menem’s reforms in 1993, and then the economic crisis in 2001, has seen a great decline in the system. In 1948, then President Juan Perón nationalised the railway, and the Sarmiento line, formerly operated by British owned Buenos Aires Western Company, became one of six state owned companies managed by Ferrocarrilles Argentinos. The British financed the investment and by 1914 it had become the tenth largest system in the world. Opposite the station in Haedo, British style terrace houses built for railway workers line the track.Ĭonstruction of the Argentine rail network took place primarily from 1870. A broad gauge of 5ft 6in (1,676mm), and traffic running on the left illustrates British influence. Crossing General Paz Avenue at Liniers, it leaves the city and enters the province of Buenos Aires.įrom there, it bustles on down poorly maintained tracks, originally laid more than a century earlier. Ten or so minutes after departure time, the badly functioning electronic doors beep and then open and close several times, before the train pulls off.Įl Sarmiento (named after former President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) stops in the neighbourhoods of Caballito, Flores, Floresta and Villa Luro. Men are often seen climbing through a window to get on more quickly than the rest. The electronic doors open when it pulls in, and bedlam erupts as those trying to barge their way on for a seat push aside those getting off. So many passengers choose to wait on packed platforms for the next arrival. Any trains waiting are usually already full. There are four platforms, all with Moreno as its destination. Now, 1 peso 35 cents buys a ticket to the end of the line, Moreno, a city just 100km from the capital. The train used to run all the way across the Pampas to Mendoza in the west of the country.
Disorganized chaos and typically long queues at the ticket booths. The train to Zona Oeste, operated by TBA (Trenes de Buenos Aires) leaves from Once de Septiembre Station.įrom the outside, characteristic British charm is clear in the design of the station building. Unlike train lines serving the wealthy northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, the Sarmiento line to the west of La Capital is in a poor state.
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