ARGENTINA: The province of Mendoza has confirmed plans to develop a 32·3 km suburban rail line to serve the area surrounding the city of the same name.
The railway would run eastwards from the Gutiérrez terminus of the Metrotranvía light rail line in Maipú, which lies southeast of central Mendoza, to San Martín, serving eight stations.
The service would use an existing railway alignment, sharing tracks with freight trains. The project covers renovation of the stations and the tracks, as well as improving level crossings, drainage and the signalling system.
The Mendoza provincial government is to manage the infrastructure works and procure rolling stock. The overall project cost is estimated at US$100m, which would be provided by the provincial government with a private financial contribution.
The province will determine the fares and it would use farebox revenues to recoup its investment.
The development of the project started in 2017, and the province signed an agreement in late June with the National Transportation Secretariat to take the scheme forward.
However, the provincial government is yet to finalise an agreement with Trenes Argentinos Cargas, which manages the infrastructure, to authorise the service and obtain rights for management of the infrastructure, which would remain open for other operators to use.
‘The idea is to be able to build infrastructure on the existing tracks, have control of that infrastructure and those tracks, share the route with the Belgrano Cargas trains’, said Natalio Mema, Minister for Government, Infrastructure & Territorial Development for the provincial government when the plans were outlined at the end of July.
