Rosario Norte Station

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Rosario Norte
Façade of the station, on del Valle Avenue (2006).
General information
LocationA. del Valle and Callao
Rosario
Argentina
Owned byGovernment of Argentina
Operated by
Line(s)Mitre
Platforms6
History
Opened1885; 139 years ago (1885)

Rosario Norte is a railway station in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located on Aristóbulo del Valle Avenue, at the junction with Callao St., north of the city centre, in the neighbourhood known as Barrio Pichincha.

The station, part of the Ferrocarril Mitre network, is currently operated by two companies, State-owned Operadora Ferroviaria (passenger services) and private Nuevo Central Argentino (NCA) (freight).

History[edit]

Rosario Norte, c. 1900

The station was terminus of the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway (BARR) company. The railway line was opened in 1885 and was the first to join Rosario and Buenos Aires (about 300 km south-southeast). From Rosario Norte the line continued to the northwest, crossing several provinces of Argentina to reach Tucumán. In 1908, after the merging of the BARR and the Central Argentine Railway companies, the station was set aside to handle long-distance and express services. Around 1935–1940, a few years after the "golden age" of the Argentine railway system, Rosario Norte served 326,000 passengers per year (more than 800 daily).[1][2]

In 1977 almost all of the local and mid-distance passenger services were cancelled. Rosario Norte was left in charge of the few remaining ones. Starting in 1991, passenger rail services were eliminated throughout the country, while cargo lines were privatized. The Rosario Norte–Retiro (Buenos Aires) line was shut down in July 1992, and the services going from Rosario Norte to Tucumán suffered the same fate in March 1993.

Rosario Norte was reactivated in October 1997, as the exploitation of a new passenger service between Tucumán and Buenos Aires was granted by the government of Tucumán to the firm Tucumán Ferrocarriles. At the same time, the municipality of Rosario took over most of the building and began to reform it for administrative use. In June 1999 the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and Education was installed there, sharing the facilities with Tucumán Ferrocarriles and with a cargo train company (Buenos Aires al Pacífico/América Latina Logística).

After the turn of the millennium, restoration and maintenance of the station's infrastructure, overdue by about two decades continued, and new services were added. As of 2007, Rosario Norte manages two passenger services from Buenos Aires, a weekly one run by Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), and another one (four days a week) run by Ferrocentral. The latter company also has a weekly service to Tucumán and one to Córdoba. These services are considerably slower than going by bus, but also safer and much cheaper.[3][4]

Since October 2014, State-owned company Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado operates the Rosario Norte station as part of the passenger services from Retiro to Tucumán.[5][6]

In June 2016, Rosario Norte was set as new terminus for the Buenos Aires – Rosario service. Until then, trains only reached Rosario Sur.[7]

Historic operators[edit]

Company Period
United Kingdom Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway 1885–1908
United Kingdom Central Argentine Railway 1908–1948
Argentina Ferrocarriles Argentinos 1948–1993
Argentina Tucumán Ferrocarriles 1997–2000
Argentina Ferrocentral 2004–2014
Argentina Trenes Argentinos Operaciones 2014–present

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Historia de los Ferrocarriles de Rosario" [History of Rosario's Railways]. Asociación Rosarina Amigos del Riel. Archived from the original on February 28, 2007.
  2. ^ "Rieles que corren sobre la memoria y el porvenir". La Capital. 10 April 2005. Archived from the original on December 19, 2005.
  3. ^ "Retiro - Rosario Sur - Rosario Norte" [Train schedules]. Satélite Ferroviario.
  4. ^ "La Estación Rosario Norte se lava la cara". La Capital. 26 March 2006. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006.
  5. ^ "Resolución 1093/2013: Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado - Asignación de servicios". Official Bulletin of Argentina. 17 September 2013.
  6. ^ Rossi, Antonio (24 September 2014). "Randazzo reestatiza los trenes de larga distancia a Córdoba y Tucumán". Letra P.
  7. ^ "El tren a Retiro llega ahora hasta la estación Rosario Norte, en pleno Pichincha", La Capital, 16 Jun 2016

External links[edit]