ARGENTINA’s Río Negro province is advancing negotiations to assume control of Tren del Valle regional services from the national government, another step in the country’s liberalisation programme under which the government is seeking to reduce its role in operating local passenger services.
Tren del Valle is one of Argentina’s few remaining regional passenger services outside of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. Officials from Río Negro and the national Secretariat of Transport met in Buenos Aires in May to discuss the transfer of the service, which began operating on 1676mm gauge infrastructure between Neuquén and Cipolletti in northern Patagonia in 2015 using a fleet of refurbished DMUs.
Tren del Valle carried almost 900,000 passengers during its first three years of operation as well as 361,000 passengers in 2019. before service disruptions and subsequent operational difficulties caused by rolling stock shortages reduced its role within the regional transport network.
Río Negro governor, Alberto Weretilneck, says the province is seeking a formal transfer agreement that would allow it to manage and extend the service, with studies underway for a westward extension to Plottier in Neuquén province and eastward to General Roca to create an approximately 70km corridor linking the region’s principal urban centres. Reinstating passenger services to General Roca has been a long-standing objective of local authorities and transport planners.
The province’s transport minister, Alejandro Echarren, says discussions with the national government are progressing and that technical, operational and legal aspects of the transfer are being analysed. The proposed transfer will also require agreements with national infrastructure manager Adif and state passenger operator Argentinean Trains over the future use of rolling stock, stations and infrastructure.
