Rail transport in Argentina

Argentina
Operation
National railway	Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Infrastructure company	ADIFSE
Statistics
Ridership	423,202,522 Buenos Aires commuter (2018)[1] 2,036,792 regional (2018)[2] 1,009,357 long distance (2018)
System length
Total	17,866 km (11,101 mi) (8th)[3]
Track gauge
5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)	26,475 km (16,451 mi)
1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)	2,780 km (1,730 mi)
1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)	7,711 km (4,791 mi)
Secondary narrow gauges	424 km (263 mi)
Map Argentina's rail network at its greatest extent (c. 1950)

The Argentine railway network consisted of a 47,000 km (29,204 mi) network at the end of the Second World War and was, in its time, one of the most extensive and prosperous in the world. However, with the increase in highway construction, there followed a sharp decline in railway profitability, leading to the break-up in 1993 of Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA), the state railroad corporation. During the period following privatisation, private and provincial railway companies were created and resurrected some of the major passenger routes that FA once operated.

Dissatisfied with the private management of the railways, beginning in 2012 and following the Once Tragedy, the national government started to re-nationalise some of the private operators and ceased to renew their contracts. At the same time, Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (SOFSE) was formed to manage the lines which were gradually taken over by the government in this period and Argentina's railways began receiving far greater investment than in previous decades.^[4][5][6] In 2014, the government also began replacing the long distance rolling stock and rails and ultimately put forward a proposal in 2015 which revived Ferrocarriles Argentinos as Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos later that year.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The railroad network, with its 17,866 km (11,101 mi) (2018) size, is smaller than it once was, though still the 16th largest in the world,^[3] and the 27th largest in passenger numbers.