THE TRAIN OF HIGH SPEED IN BUENOS AIRES: "THE ARCH OF THE ATLANTIC" PROJECT
TEXT AND PHOTOS: ROBERTO JORGE YOMMI
To run the 400 kilometres that separate Buenos Aires for the Silver Sea, the main balnearium and touristic destiny of the Buenos Aires coast, lasts around five hours. This stretch, part of the first railways lines custructed by the british companies of Argentina, arrived the Silver Sea in 1886 and , from then on, it has hardly changed.
General Motors Locomotive GT-22/9068, leaving the station, terminal "Construction" to the head of a formation with the destiny Silver Sea.
Managed today by the ejecution Unity of the provincial railway programme (U.E.P.F.P.), this is the highest traffic of this company, and 25 intermidium companies reinforce their route. The formations are composed by cars of the decade of the 60 "Materfer" made in the country, Japaneese "Hitachi" and some americans Budd, ex Chesapeake and Ohio, with finishings if inoxidable steel, received in 1951. Eventually, they are reinforced by Spanish cars suministred by the Patagonic railway services (SEFEPA). The traction is diesel, and the locomotives of General Motors GT-22 of 2475 manages it.
Adela Station, one of the stations of the route.
Three hours of travell
I front of this reality, an iniciative is born, and this proposes to shorten the time of travell to three hours, with only an intermediate stop. The denomination of the project, with the form of association among the public and private sectors, would be "Arch of the atlantic", and is motorized with the consortium composed by the companies Adtranz, Ferrostaal and Siemens, that preview an inversion of around 600 millions of dollars, during five years.
Although it is still object of modifications and is without date to begin to function, the first step would endorse the improvement of the rail, the construction of the dinamic deviations, the amplification of the curvature of some stretchs, the extension of the sectors of double rail, the verification fo the aggregate, construction or remodelation of the bridges, etc. The final object of the work is to achieve the goal of 160 km/h of maxime velocity, and the reduction of the time of the travell to three hours.
It is also possible tht there would be other destinies included in the service (MIramar, Pinamar and Necochea) already covered by the railway, and extending it to the cities not already included in the service (San Clemente/Villa Gesell).
General Motors GT-22 # 9071 driving in the km 5 of the metropolitan section of the stretch BsAs-MdP. It can be observed the catenary of the electric service of the suburban passangers.
