Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado

Operadora Ferroviaria S.E.

Sarmiento Line, one of the services operated
Trade name	Trenes Argentinos Operaciones
Type	State-owned
Industry	Railway
Predecessor	show List UGOMS Soc. Com. Del Plata Ferrocentral SEFECHA Argentren Corredores Ferroviarios
Founded	2008; 13 years ago (2008)
Founder	Government of Argentina
Headquarters	Buenos Aires , Argentina
Area served	National
Key people	Alexis Guerrera (Transport Minister)[1] Martín Marinucci (President)[2]
Services	Railway transport and maintenance
Owner	Government of Argentina
Parent	Trenes Argentinos
Website	argentina.gob.ar/transporte/trenes

Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado^[3][4] (abbreviated SOFSE; trading name: Trenes Argentinos Operaciones) is an Argentine state-owned company created in 2008 to operate passenger services in Argentina. It is a subsidiary of the Ferrocarriles Argentinos holding company.

Since March 2015 SOFSE has run the Buenos Aires commuter rail services Mitre, San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines^[5][6] previously operated by private companies.

History[]

Background[]

After the Railway privatisation in Argentina at the beginning of the 1990s the railway assets that had not given in concession were taken over by Ferrocarriles Argentinos before being dissolved.

From 1996 to 2000 those assets were administered by "Ente Nacional de Administración de Bienes Ferroviarios" (ENABIEF) created through a National Decree promulgated by the Presidency of Argentina. On June 1, 2000, ENABIEF merged to Dirección Nacional de Bienes del Estado.

From then on, the "Organismo Nacional de Administración de Bienes" (ONABE) began its activities as an organism created to manage the assets not directly affected to State activities.^[7]

Law 26.352 promulgated in 2008 re-organized the railway operations in Argentina creating two State organisms, the "Administración de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias" (ADIF) and the Operadora Ferroviaria (SOFSE). Decree N° 752/08 regulated the activities by the recently established company since then.

Further operations[]

Although having been established in 2008, SOFSE became active two years later, when the organism took over the railway services in Chaco Province left by Servicios Ferroviarios del Chaco (SEFECHA). In 2011 the organism added the regional services of Salta and Buenos Aires Provinces. When the Ministry of Transport was created in 2012, SOFSE took over all the urban services not granted in concession of Greater Buenos Aires. The society also began to operate interurban services such as train services to Córdoba, Tucumán cities and other services previously operated by the Government of Entre Ríos Province.

In June 2013, SOFSE took over the Tren de la Costa when the Government decided the company would be managed by the Argentine State after revoking the contract with Sociedad Comercial del Plata.^[8]

In September 2013, the Government of Argentina designed SOFSE to operate the Mitre and Sarmiento lines, after their contracts of concession were revoked to Trenes de Buenos Aires. This decision was officially promulgated through Resolution N° 1083/13.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

SOFSE operated temporarily the Mitre line until the Government of Argentina re-privatised it, giving the line in concession to "Corredores Ferroviarios S.A." (a private company part of Emepa Group) on February 12, 2014.^[14][15][16]

In December 2014, brand new trains acquired by the Government of Argentina to Chinese company CNR Dalian, started to run luxury services from Constitución to Mar del Plata.^[17][18] Classic service continued to be operated by Ferrobaires.^[19]

In February 2015, services from Buenos Aires to Rufino, Santa Fe were reestablished after 22 years. The service runs with brand-new trains acquired to China on Ferrocarril San Martín tracks. Trains make stops at Chacabuco, Junín, Vedia and Alberdi, among other stations.^[20][21]

In March 2015, SOFSE started to run the CNR CKD8 trains from Retiro to Córdoba. Due to the poor conditions of the tracks, trains took 19 hours to run the 700 km (430 mi) between terminus. It was double the time that in 1938, when services operated by Central Argentine took 9 hours to connect both cities with two intermediate stops.^[22][23]

Commuter rail renationalisation[]

SOFSE took over Belgrano Sur and Roca (operated by Argentren) and Mitre and San Martín (operated by Corredores Ferroviarios) lines after the Government of Argentina rescinded the contracts signed with both companies on March 2, 2015. The contract terms specified that the concession could be cancelled with no right to claim compensation.^[5] The agreements had been signed in February 2014, committing Argentren and Corredores Ferroviarios to operate the lines.^[6][24][25]

Current situation[]

In January 2016, the Ministry of Transport ceased operations over services to La Pampa Province. The Government took the decision based on the low demand of the Santa Rosa–General Pico line and the poor conditions of some bridges that had been deteriorated after the flooding in August 2015.^[26][27][28]

In June 2016, the Buenos Aires–Rosario service extended operations to Rosario Norte Station (located at the north of the city, closer to the downtown) instead of Rosario Sur, which had been terminus until then.^[29]

Services operated[]

The following is a list of services operated by Operadora Ferroviaria in Argentina. The list includes urban railways such as Mitre, San Martín, Roca and Belgrano Sur lines previously managed by private companies. The Binational service Posadas-Encarnación is run by Casimiro Zbikoski S.A. through an operation agreement with SOFSE.^[30]

Urban[]

Commuter rail services within the Buenos Aires Province:

Cities run	Service	Km.[note 1]	Line
Once – Moreno[31]	Electric	45	Sarmiento
Moreno – Mercedes	Diesel	62
Merlo – Lobos	Diesel	90
Constitución – Ezeiza	Electric	35	Roca
Ezeiza – Cañuelas	Diesel	35
Constitución – Alejandro Korn	Electric	45
Alejandro Korn – Chascomús	Diesel	93
Constitución – La Plata	Electric	60
La Plata – Policlínico (University train)	Diesel	4
Constitución – Temperley	Electric	19
Temperley – Haedo	Diesel	30
Constitución – Bosques (via Quilmes)	Electric	19
Constitución – Bosques (via Temperley)	Electric	19
Bosques – Gutiérrez	Diesel	7
Cañuelas – Lobos	Diesel	37
Dr. A. Sáenz – González Catán	Diesel	30	Belgrano Sur
Dr. A. Sáenz – Marinos Cruc. Belgrano	Diesel	43
Retiro – Tigre	Electric	30	Mitre
Retiro – B. Mitre	Electric	15
Retiro – José León Suárez	Electric	27
Victoria – Capilla del Señor	Diesel	60
Villa Ballester – Zárate	Diesel	75
Retiro – Doctor Cabred	Diesel	70	San Martín
Maipú – Delta[31]	Electric	15	Tren de la Costa [note 2]

Long distance[]

Inter-city services along Argentina, as of July 2019:

Province/s covered	Cities run	Km.[note 1]	Company/Line
Buenos Aires	Constitución – Mar del Plata[32] [note 3]	400	Roca
	Constitución – Bahía Blanca	637	Roca
	Once – Chivilcoy	160	Sarmiento
	Retiro – Junín	260	San Martín
Buenos Aires – Córdoba[35][36][37]	Retiro - Córdoba	695	Mitre
Buenos Aires – Santa Fe	Retiro – Rosario Norte	315	Mitre
Buenos Aires – Tucumán	Retiro – S.M. de Tucumán (via Rosario Norte) [35][36]	1,170	Mitre
Chaco	R.S. Peña – Chorotis[38]	185	Belgrano
	Cacuí – Los Amores	153	Belgrano
Córdoba	Córdoba – Villa María[39]	150	Mitre
	Alta Córdoba – Cosquín (Tren de las Sierras)	150	Belgrano
Entre Ríos	Paraná – Colonia Avellaneda [40]	13	Urquiza
Neuquén, Río Negro	Neuquén – Cipolletti (Tren del Valle) [41]	10	Roca
Misiones	Posadas – Encarnación [note 4][note 5]	8	Urquiza
Salta	Salta – General Güemes[43][44]	40	Belgrano

See also[]

• Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos
• ADIFSE
• Belgrano Cargas y Logística
• Rail transport in Argentina

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sofse.

• Official website