 | Transportation in Argentina: Encyclopedia II - Transportation in Argentina - Long distance transportation
Transportation in Argentina - Long distance transportation
Argentina being almost 4,000 kilometres long, and more than 1,000 km wide, long distance transportation is an important issue. Besides a few toll highways, there are lots of national and provincial routes that spread thought the country, and that are used by cars and long distance buses.
Transportation in Argentina - Routes and highways
Argentine's routes are usually simple one-lane-per-side roads. There are a few highways between some important cities, such as the Panamerican Argentina Highway 9 Buenos Aires - Rosario. The Argentine road system, although extensive, does not cover the country entirely; for instance, the Ruta 40 from El Chaltén to Esquel has not been yet paved. South sea-side backbone Ruta Nacional 3 runs from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia.
Transportation in Argentina - Buses
Argentine long distance buses are fast, affordable and comfortable. With three different services regarding the number of stops and type of seats, called Regular, Semi-cama (semi-bed), and Cama (bed), the later being similar to airplane's business class. Some services have also on-board dinner, while others stop at canteens by the road. Long and middle-distance buses cover almost all paved-accessible cities and towns, and most of the other towns and villages.
Transportation in Argentina - Airplanes
Though expensive in comparison with the other means of transportation, flights are being used more and more often. Every provincial capital has its own airport, and there are many other working, specially in tourist areas such as Bariloche and El Calafate. Most companies have several daily flights to the most popular destinations, and daily or less frequent flights to other destinations. Even though Buenos Aires is the most important flight hub, both because of economical and geographical reasons, there are flights between important cities, such as Córdoba, Rosario and Mendoza.
Transportation in Argentina - Trains
The railway system, once wide and prosperous, has their long distance passenger services reduced in 1993 and a lot of lines were closed to all services. The railways were estimated at around 30,000km of rails, of which about 2,500 are in service now. The rest was closed because it was considered a loss for the train companies. Small towns that depended on the train had their economies severely damaged. The trains, when government-operated, made a $ 1,000,000 loss every day. (the argentine peso was equivalent to the US dollar). Now the trains are private owned, and cost the government roughly $ 1,000,000 a day in subsidies.
Those are the current long distance passenger trains in operation (Plaza Constitucion, Once and Retiro are stations located in Buenos Aires):
- Plaza Constitución - Pinamar: twice a week R
- Plaza Constitución - Mar del Plata: three trains daily, other added Friday. R
- Plaza Constitución - Miramar: once a week R
- Plaza Constitución - Ayacucho - Tandil: once a week
- Plaza Constitución - Azul - Olavarría: five days a week R
- Plaza Constitución - Bahía Blanca (Lamadrid route): three times a week R, D
- Plaza Constitución - Bahía Blanca (Pringles route): two times a week R
- Plaza Constitución - Carmen de Patagones: once a week R
- Plaza Constitución - Saladillo - General Alvear: twice a week
- Plaza Constitución - 25 de Mayo - Bolívar: five days a week
- Plaza Constitución - Daireaux: once a week
- Once - Chivilcoy - Bragado: daily
- Once - Los Toldos - Lincoln: once a week
- Once - 9 de Julio - Carlos Casares: four days a week
- Once - Pehuajó: three times a week
- Retiro - Junín: daily
- Retiro - Rosario - Santa Fe: once a week
- Retiro - Rosario - La Banda - Tucumán: once a week R, D (suspended)
- Retiro - Rosario - Córdoba: once a week R, D
- Córdoba - Villa Maria: twice a week
- Viedma - San Antonio Oeste - S. C. de Bariloche: thrice weekly R, D
- Ing. Jacobacci - San Carlos de Bariloche: thrice weekly
- Federico Lacroze - Concordia - Monte Caseros - Posadas: twice a week R, D
- Basavilbaso - Villaguay Central - Concordia: five days a week
- Resistencia - La Sabana - Los Amores: to La Sabana daily, to Los Amores three days a week
- Roque Sáenz Peña - Pinedo - Chorotis: daily
- Resistencia suburban service: several trains daily
R = Restaurant, at least in most of the trip.
D= Sleeping car
See timetable for long distance and regional passenger trains
There are also a number of tourist trains (from Esquel, San Carlos de Bariloche, Usuahia and in the Entre Rios Province), including the the seasonal Tren de las nubes in the province of Salta, running from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres, that runs only from October to March. At present this service is suspended until further notice.
Other related archivesAerolíneas Argentinas, Argentina, As of 2005, Azul, Bahía Blanca, Bariloche, Bolivia, Bragado, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Metro, Carmen de Patagones, Chile, Colectivo, Colectivo 60, Colonia del Sacramento, Communications, Comodoro Rivadavia, Concepción del Uruguay, Concordia, Crude oil, Culture, Córdoba, Demographics, Diesel, Economy, Education, El Chaltén, Entre Rios Province, Esquel, European, Fluvial, Foreign relations, Geography, Greater Buenos Aires, History, IRJ, Junín, La Plata, Mar del Plata, March, Mendoza, Military, Miramar, Montevideo, Natural gas, October, Once, Panamerican, Paraguay, Pinamar, Plaza Constitucion, Politics, Posadas, Religion, Resistencia, Rosario, Río Gallegos, Río de la Plata, S. C. de Bariloche, Salta, Santa Fe, South Trans-Andean Railway, Subterráneo de Buenos Aires, Tigre, Tourism, Transportation in Argentina, Tucumán, Uruguay, Ushuaia, Viedma, Villa Maria, bottlenecks, business class, colectivo, gridlocks, metro, public domain
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Long distance transportation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
