Light rail system in Buenos Aires
This article is about the modern tram system in Buenos Aires. For the city's historic tram system, see
Trams in Buenos Aires
.
The
Premetro
is a 7.4-kilometer long (4.6 mi)
light rail
line
[1]
that runs along the outskirts of
Buenos Aires
, connecting with the
Buenos Aires Underground
line E
, at Plaza de los Virreyes station and then to General Savio, with a short branch to Centro Civico. It opened in 1987 and is operated by
Metrovias
. Originally, the Premetro was to include many more lines, but shortly after the
privatisation of the railways
the projects were postponed and never materialised and only "Premetro E2" was built.
[4]
History
[
edit
]
Line E2
[
edit
]
One of the refurbished
La Brugeoise cars
that ran temporarily on the line, now part of the
Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway
.
Materfer
rolling stock leaving
Plaza de los Virreyes
.
Interior of the
Intendente Saguier
terminal following refurbishment.
The line opened in stages. The first section was opened for service on 28 April 1987. This was the 2 km section between the Plaza de los Virreyes metro station and Ana Maria Janer,
[1]
near the line's carhouse. The service was extended to Villa Soldati in June and to General Savio on 25 August. A formal inauguration ceremony was held two days later.
[1]
The cost of constructing the line was US$5.4 million, and an additional $4.6 million was allocated to the acquisition of a fleet of 25 trams. A contract for the latter was awarded around the end of 1985 to a consortium led by the Argentine company
Materfer
(
Fabrica de Material Ferroviario
),
[5]
of Cordoba, some of which were for a planned second line that was to be built later.
[1]
Delivery of the Materfer cars was originally due to begin in mid-1987,
[5]
but it soon became apparent that they would not be ready until mid-1988 or later, which was well after construction of the line was completed. In order to avoid a long delay in the opening of the line, officials decided to create a temporary fleet by converting some 1913 metro cars into trams. They were double-
truck
(four-axle), non-articulated, double-ended (bidirectional) trams. A total of eight such cars were built, using new metal bodies manufactured in Buenos Aires by
EMEPA S.A.
, mounted on the original 1913 Belgian-built
La Brugeoise
underframes. They were painted in a livery of all-over green.
[1]
The first three of these inaugurated service on the first section of line E2 in April 1987.
The Materfer trams began to arrive in mid-1988, with six delivered by the end of the year.
[2]
Their electrical equipment was supplied by
Siemens
. Like the temporary cars rebuilt from metro cars, the Materfer/Siemens trams are double-truck, double-ended cars.
[2]
They have seating for 24 passengers and room for around 115 standees.
[1]
[2]
They have three doors on each side. The low-platform stops along the line are long enough to accommodate only one car at a time, and
multiple-unit
operation is not planned, so the tramcars are not equipped with
couplers
.
The first Materfer cars entered service on 14 October 1988.
[1]
In 1989, both types of car were still in service,
[2]
but eventually the Materfer cars replaced all of the rebodied metro cars. By April 1991, 20 of the 25 cars had been delivered (fleet numbers PM 1?20), and the last five were reported as being completed but still at the factory in Cordoba.
[6]
However, the scheduled service needed only six cars.
[6]
As of 2001, normal peak service still required only six to eight cars.
[1]
Metrovias
became the line's operator on 1 July 1993, under a
franchise
agreement.
[7]
Other planned lines
[
edit
]
The
Metrobus
network has replaced many of the originally planned Premetro lines.
Fatima
station was refurbished in 2016 and other stations will be based on this design.
The original PreMetro plan developed in the late 1980s included the building of two or three more additional lines, however due to the timing of these projects having coincided with
railway privatisation in Argentina
, only PreMetro E2 materialised before the
Buenos Aires Underground
network was privatised and investment ground to a halt for the following two decades. Much like PreMetro E2, the naming of the PreMetro lines would have shared the letter of their corresponding Underground line along with a number depending on how many PreMetro lines corresponded to that Underground line.
With
Line E
of the Underground, PreMetro E2 was the first phase of the project with the construction of PreMetro E1 being the second phase. This line would have extended out from the end of Line E eastwards to the limits of the city proper with
Greater Buenos Aires
.
[4]
However, this never materialised following privatisation and the building of the
Metrobus Sur
in 2013 rendered the building of the line obsolete since it covered the same area and route, with the added benefit of going directly to the city centre without needing to transfer to Line E.
[8]
While the Metrobus Sur was still in the planning stages, it had been proposed in 2012 to create a Premetro H1 line extending from the terminus of
Underground Line H
to the edge of the city proper, connecting with Premetro E2 at its General Savio terminus, giving the benefit over the originally planned E1 line in that it would create a loop between Underground lines E and H.
[9]
In the end though, the
Metrobus
was established instead of Premetro H.
Plans for other lines included PreMetro D1 in the 1980s, which would have departed from the final station of
Line D
to the limits of the city proper. In 2015, this became a reality with the opening of
Metrobus Cabildo
rather than a tram service.
[10]
There would also have been a PreMetro C1 which would have connected with
Line C
and the
Roca Line
at
Constitucion railway station
and headed northwards to
Retiro railway station
(parallel to Line C, but further east) and eastwards to
Puerto Madero
.
[10]
The current extension of Line E northwards to Retiro replaced this,
[11]
but not the Puerto Madero section, which was briefly covered by the experimental
Tranvia del Este
.
Recent developments
[
edit
]
| This section needs to be
updated
.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
(
October 2022
)
|
In 2015 SBASE, along with the City of Buenos Aires, began making plans to refurbish and rebuild many of the Line E2 stations, including a brand new terminal at
Plaza de los Virreyes
, as part of a plan to modernise the network which also intends to increase the amount of rolling stock in circulation.
[12]
[13]
In October 2015 the refurbishment of the
Intendente Saguier
terminal was completed, followed by the refurbishment of
Fatima
station in April 2016.
[14]
[15]
Description and service
[
edit
]
Line E2 passes through many poorer areas, but travel on the line is generally safe. As of 2001, service was being provided from 7:00 to 22:00, matching the hours of the line E underground service, on a
headway
varying between 5 and 10 minutes depending on the time of day.
[1]
Most of the line is
double-track
, but the short branch to Centro Civico is
single-track
.
[1]
The line includes sections of private right-of-way, sections of reserved track (in the median of streets, but separated from other traffic) and street-running in mixed traffic.
[1]
The carhouse (maintenance facility) for the line is located along Avenida Mariano Acosta, adjacent to the Somellera stop.
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Tram at Pola station
-
A tram/light-rail car at the end of the line's single-track branch, to Centro Civico
-
Tram in Parque de la Ciudad station
-
General Savio station
-
Interior of one of the trams
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
Cross, Barry (April 2001).
"Buenos Aires: Brand new pre-Metro line"
Archived
2016-03-04 at the
Wayback Machine
.
Tramways & Urban Transit
, pp. 136?137. UK:
Light Rail Transit Association
/
Ian Allan Publishing
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Van Hattum, C. (August 1989). "Developments in Buenos Aires".
Modern Tramway
, pp. 271?273. UK:
Ian Allan Ltd
.
- ^
a
b
"Nuestra compania - ¿Que hacemos?"
[Our Company - What We Do] (in Spanish). Metrovias
. Retrieved
2015-01-18
.
- ^
a
b
Premetro a Puente de la Noria, en el olvido por el Metrobus del Sur
- EnElSubte, 16 August 2013
- ^
a
b
Modern Tramway
, March 1986, p. 97. UK:
Ian Allan Ltd
.
- ^
a
b
Modern Tramway
, August 1991, p. 280. UK:
Ian Allan Ltd
.
- ^
Light Rail and Modern Tramway
, August 1993, p. 219. UK:
Ian Allan Ltd
.
- ^
Metrobus Sur
- Buenos Aires Ciudad
- ^
Proponen que el Premetro absorba el recorrido del Metrobus del Sur
-
- ^
a
b
¿Por que la linea D no llega hasta Puente Saavedra?
- EnElSubte, 25 June 2013.
- ^
Linea E
- Buenos Aires Ciudad.
- ^
Realizan contratacion directa para renovar la terminal del Premetro
- EnElSubte, March 2015
- ^
El plan de SBASE para el Premetro
- EnElSubte, September 2014
- ^
Renovamos el Centro de Transferencia Intendente Saguier
- Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 14 October 2015
- ^
"Manana reabriremos la estacion Fatima del Premetro"
.
Buenos Aires Ciudad - Gobierno de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires
. Retrieved
24 April
2016
.
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