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Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is one of South America's biggest cities with 3 million inhabitants (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires) and 12 million in the larger metropolitan area (Gran Buenos Aires). For a city of this size the metro network is still very small although it's by far the oldest subway in South America.

After losing many passengers during the 1980's, the Subte was privatised and is now operated by Metrovías which immediately started refurbishing stations and buying new rolling stock to replace older trains, some of which have been running since the Subte opened.

The total network is approx. 46.8 km (2007) and totally underground.

The first line of the metro, Line A, was built and initially operated by a private company called Anglo Argentine Tramway Company and opened already in 1913.

01/12/1913 - Plaza de Mayo - Plaza Miserere
01/04/1914 - Plaza Miserere - Río de Janeiro
01/07/1914 - Río de Janeiro - Primera Junta

Line B was built by the Anglo's rival Lacroze. Lacroze operated an interurban line from Chacarita to Campo de Mayo, which later became General Urquiza railroad and is now owned by Metrovías. That is one reason why Urquiza is the only railroad in Buenos Aires that has 1,435 mm gauge instead of broad gauge. It originally had a catenary but was later changed to third rail and coaches are the same width than those from broad-gauge railroads. Lacroze designed and built Subte Line B to feed their suburban railroad. Since the only other Subte line at the time was a competitor, compatibility wasn't an issue, so Line B cars are wider and they use third rail, while all other lines use catenary.

17/10/1930 - Federico Lacroze - Callao
22/07/1931 - Callao - Pellegrini
xx/12/1931 - Pellegrini - L.N.Alem
09/08/2003 - Federico Lacroze - Los Incas

Line C was built by Chadopyf (Compañía Hispano Argentina de Obras Públicas y Finanzas) in 1933. The first section was opened in 1934 and it went from Constitución to Diagonal Norte. In 1936, it was stretched to Retiro and in 1937 San Martín station was opened. It currently uses Siemens cars.

09/11/1934 - Constitución - Diagonal Norte
06/02/1936 - Diagonal Norte - Retiro (General San Martín opened 17/08/1937)

Line D was began in 1936 and the first section (Catedral - Tribunales) was opened in 1937. In 1940, it was extended to Palermo. This line was also built by Chadopyf. In 1987, it was extended to Ministro Carranza, and during the late 1990s it reached its current terminus Congreso de Tucumán. Line D has three different types of rolling stock: Fiat-Materfer (which are maroon and white), Nagoya (the city that owned them previously) and Alstom Metropolis (which were meant for Line A, which has to be upgraded before they can be used there).

03/06/1937 - Catedral - Tribunales (1.7 km)
23/02/1940 - Tribunales - Palermo
29/12/1987 - Palermo - Ministro Carranza
31/05/1997 - Ministro Carranza - José Hernández
21/06/1999 - José Hernández - Juramento
27/04/2000 - Juramento - Congreso de Tucumán

Line E was also built by Chadopyf. Work began in 1940 and the first section between San José and the intersection at General Urquiza was opened in 1944. Six months later, it was extended to Boedo, but that station was opened in 1960. By 1966, it was extended from Bolivar to Avenida La Plata, then in 1973 to José María Moreno, to Varela in 1986, and eventually to Plaza de los Virreyes in 1986. It uses the same Siemens cars as Line C, but with slight modifications.

20/06/1944 - San José (Plaza Constitución) - General Urquiza (3 km)
xx/12/1944 - General Urquiza - Boedo
24/04/1966 - Boedo - Av. La Plata and San José - Bolívar
23/06/1973 - Av. La Plata - José María Moreno
07/10/1985 - José María Moreno - Emilio Mitre
31/10/1985 - Emilio Mitre - Medalla Milagrosa
27/11/1985 - Medalla Milagrosa - Varela
08/05/1986 - Varela - Plaza de los Virreyes

Line H opened in October 2007, 63 years after the last subte line had been brought into service. It was planned to run parallel to Line C, from Retiro to Sáenz (11 km), to be built in various stages. Construction on the first section between Plaza Once and Inclán started in 2001. A fifth station, Caseros, was added to the project in 2003. Construction on the section Caseros - Hospitales and Once - Corrientes began in early 2006.

18/10/2007 - Once - Caseros (3.5 km)

Apart from the Subte there is a 7.4 km light rail line (called Premetro and opened in 1987) which serves the southwestern part of the city from Line E's terminus at Plaza de Los Virreyes.

Click here for a map showing Subte and Premetro together.

Besides the Subte, Buenos Aires has numerous suburban railways, some operated with diesel and some with electric trains:

1) Línea Mitre (TBA)
2) Línea Belgrano Norte (FERROVIAS)
3) Línea San Martín (UGOFE)
4) Línea Sarmiento (TBA)
5) Línea Belgrano Sur (METROPOLITANO)
6) Línea Roca (METROPOLITANO)
7) Línea Tren de la Costa (TREN DE LA COSTA)

 Projects

Current projects:

Line H: Construction on the section Caseros - Hospitales and Once - Corrientes began in early 2006.

Line A is under construction towards the west from Primera Junta: 3.5 km with 4 stations: Puan, Carabobo (2007), Flores, Nazca (2008).

Line B is being extended underground further west (2 km) from Los Incas to Echeverría and Villa Urquiza where transfer to the Ferrocarril Mitre will be provided.

Line E extension from Bolívar to Retiro (2 intermediate station C.Central and Catalinas) started mid-2007.

Mid-term projects:

Line H - northern section

Long term plans include several north-south routes to create a proper network avoiding the city centre:

Line F - 8.6 km - from Plaza Italia (Line D) to Constitución (Line C); later south to Barracas.
Line G - 7.3 km - from Retiro to Cid Campeador; later northwest to Villa del Parque.
Line I - 6.6 km - from Emilio Mitre (Line E) to Plaza Italia (Line D); later north to Ciudad Universitaria.

- The former project to extend Line D from Congreso de Tucumán to Manuel Pedraza, was indefinitely postponed.

See Map1 (thanks to Jordi Serradell) and map2 (thanks to Mariano Hellmuth-Gómez) with possible future lines.

- OPERATION

Trains run from 5:00 until 22:20, every 3-4 minutes.

- FARES (2008)

ARG $ 0.90 for one ride
ARG $ 27.00 for 30 trips

Fares payable with SubteCard, a contactless smartcard.

View tickets

Metrovías S.A. Subte Operator (Official Page)

Subterráneos de Buenos Aires (Official Page)

Subte expansion program

Alamys - Metrovías Page

En el Subte by Martín Machain

Subte on Wikipedia.es

Premetro on Wikipedia.es

Historia del subte

Allen Morrison's BA Electric Railways Map

Map showing future extensions by Jordi Serradell

Map showing all suburban railways in the B.A. area by Eddie Millard