Ferrocarril Provincial de Santa Fe

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Rosario City Bus Depot, former station of Ferrocarril Provincial

Ferrocarril Provincial de Santa Fe (FCPSF) (in English: Province of Santa Fe Railway and in French: Compagnie Francaise de Chemins de Fer dans la Province de Santa Fe) was a French-owned company that purchased a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3⅜ in)  (metre gauge) railway network built by the provincial government of Santa Fe in Argentina on 10 April 1900 and later extended it in the provinces of Chaco and Córdoba. After nationalisation in 1948 it became part of the state-owned company Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano (FCGMB).

The company had its origins in the signing of a contract between the Santa Fe Provincial government and John G. Meiggs Son & Co. for the construction of a 100 km line north from the city of Santa Fe in the direction of the agricultural colonies. The section from Santa Fe to Rafaela was opened on 1 July 1885 and from Rafaela to Lehmann on 1 May 1886. Later the same year branch lines were opened from Empalme San Carlos to San Carlos Sur on 1 July and from Santa Fe to Colastiné on 15 October, and the line from Lehman to San Cristóbal was opened on 31 December. The line from San Carlos Sur to Gálvez was completed on 1 July 1887 and the following year the line from Humboldt to Providencia was opened on 1 January and extended to Soledad on 1 June.

On 1 January 1888 the line from Coronda to Hessler and from Pilar to Josefina and San Francisco was opened, and on 1 September later that year the lines from Santa Fe to Rosario and to San Justo were opened. The later was the first section of a line which reached Chaco Province in the following stages: Escalada in May 1889, Calchaqui in September 1889, Vera in February 1890 and La Sabena on 1 November 1892. The branch line from Colastiné to Rincón was completed in December 1889.

Until then the property of the Province, the company was transferred on 10 April 1900, by provincial decree, to the Compañía Francesa de los Ferrocarriles de la Provincia de Santa Fe, the oldest of the three French–owned railway companies in Argentina, formed by the great banque d'affaires Paribas, the steel company Fives Lille and a group of financiers associated with the latter.

In Córdoba the French company now opened a line from San Francisco to Villa María on 30 April 1904 and a branch line from Pozo del Molle to Carrilobo was added on 11 September 1907 and later that month on 20 September the line within Chaco Province was extended from La Sabena to Barranqueras. A branch line from Charaday to Oetling was opened on 10 November 1911, from Horquilla to Enrique Urién on 16 August 1912 and on to Villa Ángela on 22 December 1914. Branches were added to the main line from Vera to Reconquista on 18 November 1913 and from Km 340 to Villa Guillermina the same year.

When the entire Argentine railway network was nationalised in 1948, during Juan Perón's presidency, the FCPSF became part of the state-owned Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano (FCGMB).

[edit] References

• Translated from Spanish: Ferrocarril Provincial de Santa Fe
• Andres M. Regalsky, Foreign Capital, Local Interests and Railway Development in Argentina: French Investments in Railways, 1900-1914, J. of Latin American Studies, Vol 21, No.3 (Oct 1989), pp. 425-452.