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Buenos Aires-Mar del Plata train runs again

Tuesday, July 4th 2017 - 02:34 UTC
Full article 31 comments
“It is no longer a promise - we have delivered,” said Governor Vidal. “It is no longer a promise - we have delivered,” said Governor Vidal.
The train has air conditioning, exclusive spaces for handicapped people and a dining car for the seven-hour journey The train has air conditioning, exclusive spaces for handicapped people and a dining car for the seven-hour journey

After two years out of service, Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata, which are 400 kilometres apart, are since Monday again linked by a train service that needs almost seven hours to reach its final destination. Buenos Aires provincial Governor María Eugenia Vidal said “It is no longer a promise - we have delivered.”

 Vidal added that “it is a day of joy not only for Mar del Plata, but also for places such as Dolores, Chacomús, Lezama and Pirán will be recovering the train after many years.” The total journey will include 12 stops because “for us each neighbor of this Province are important.”

A train that will depart every day from Constitución Station (in the city of Buenos Aires) to Mar del Plata at 3.13 pm, the return service leaving at 11.59 pm. The train has air conditioning, exclusive spaces for handicapped people and a dining car.

One-way tickets to Mar del Plata will cost 200 pesos from Mondays to Thursdays and 450 from Fridays through Sundays, except for the winter school break (July 17 to 28 ), when it will cost 450 pesos every day. Tickets purchased through the railway company's website will have an additional 5% discount.

The governor underlined that after the July holidays the train will become an affordable option for tourists to visit Mar del Plata. She also stressed that the train “gave a thousand jobs to the people who worked on the project and it will give many more jobs.”

“The arrival of the train to Mar del Plata is part of our commitment to quality public transportation and the recovery of the rail system we are already carrying out with the reactivation of freight trains and an ambitious $ 14 billion plan in the Metropolitan area, which is already underway,” national Transport Minister Guillermo Dietrich said.

Categories: Politics, Tourism, Argentina.

Top Comments

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  • Marti Llazo

    Tinkle has confirmed that the state of the rail infrastructure for that 400 km run is still in poor condition, after years of Peronist neglect and the failure so far of the present government to make much headway in turning around that long-standing neglect.

    Jul 04th, 2017 - 06:25 pm +3
  • Marti Llazo

    As opposed to the immensely corrupt manner in which the Kirchner government brought about the decay of transportation infrastructure here.

    April 2016: “Former Transportation Secretary Ricardo Jaime Under Arrest And Behind Bars -
    - On Saturday, former Transportation Secretary Ricardo Jaime became the first Kirchnerite official to be arrested on corruption charges.”

    http://www.thebubble.com/ricardo-jaime-arrest/

    Jul 04th, 2017 - 04:16 am +2
  • pgerman

    @Hektor

    We can say that Menem, a true peronist, (at that time Nestor was governor of its province and was a political ally of Menem) destroyed the rail services that J.A. Roca and some british companies had created.

    During the 12 years of the last peronist government they almost nothing to bring the rails service back basically for the simple reason that the promote the usage of trucks (a more inefficient and expensive service but protected by the peronist union).

    The last peronist government was responsible for the killing of 50 people in an accident that could be avoided just reading the technical warnings. After the accident, and due to the pressure of the media and the people, the government bought, in a direct purchasing without any bidding process, some trains (in China). This purchasing was criticized even by the union “La Fraternindad” due to the corruption and bribes of the operation.

    In the City of BUenos Aires, due to economic shortages, old trains were bought in Spain and refurbished to “0 km”. They are now working well. Now the City Hall bought some new Alstom formations.

    We cannot avoid the fact that the last peronist government had during at least taken 8 years of the best international soybean prices. With this money, almost stolen to the farms, they did almost no public works..no trains, no gas, no oil, no electricity..nothing just corruption.

    This train, Bs As-Mar del Plata, is finally back thanks to Macri's government that started investing money, hughe amounts of it, in public work

    Jul 04th, 2017 - 11:56 am +2
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