Ferrocarril Compañía General en la Provincia de Buenos Aires

The Ferrocarril Compañía General de Buenos Aires (CGBA) (in French: Compagnie Général de Chemins de Fer dans la Province de Buenos Aires) was a French–owned company, formed in 1904, which operated a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 38 in)  metre gauge railway network in Argentina.

In 1904 the company took over a concession to build lines between the ports of Buenos Aires and Rosario, and to La Plata, together with other branch lines in the west and south of Buenos Aires Province. These lines were built as detailed in Table 1.

Contents

Timeline

Table 1   Building of the CGBA
Section Length, km Date Opened
Buenos Aires - Rosario 395 25/01/1908
Villars - 9 de Julio 202 01/03/1909
Gonzalez Catán - La Plata 88 27/07/1910
Pergamino - Vedia 122 05/12/1910
Patricios - Plaza 224 07/12/1911
9 de Julio - General Villegas 232 01/12/1912

Competition

The company always faced tough competition from the various large British-owned railway companies operating in the Province who had already built lines in those areas where most profit was to be made. As a result of this competition, plans to build a line between Buenos Aires and Bahía Blanca, and other branch lines were abandoned.

Nationalisation

When the entire Argentine railway network was nationalised in 1948, during Juan Peron's presidency, the CGBA became part of the state-owned company Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano. During the later privatisation it was taken over by Transportes Metropolitanos - Belgrano Sur S.A.

References