After falling out of favor for years, trains are making a comeback in Argentina, although it is unclear whether this comeback has a viable future. With affordable prices and facilities, commuters seem happy with the option of being able to use trains to make their journeys. Alberto Fernandez’s government has invested in the reactivation of stations and rail branches abandoned 20 years ago, with the intention of reconnecting 66 towns with freight and passenger trains.
Although the railroad has a prominent place in the history and hearts of Argentines, Argentina’s rail network was largely dismantled during the neoliberal presidency of Carlos Menem in the 1990s, and the train became a sick man who had been connected to a pulmonary engine for many years. Although the numbers do not accompany, Trenes Argentinos, the public entity that in 2014 resumed the management of the network, considers the recovery of the trains a “state policy” that represents a social right.
Historian Jorge Waddell, professor of public policy and Argentine railway history, does not trust the viability of the railroad today, as fares cannot be paid in an impoverished society. However, many Argentines still see the railroad as an instrument the state had to develop and create a country that did not exist before.