Ferrocentralsa.com Train From Cordoba To Ba

[hilltopkid]

My friend and I will be flying in October to Salta where I was born back in 1942. After a week there, we'd like to come back to BA via first class bus to Cordoba (we've taken first class Andesmar and Transit Line buses before, and they are excellent), stay three days and then take the Ferrocentral S.A. train, camerote class, to BA Retirio station. I've studied the schedule, etc. on their web site and it will work for us. Has anyone taken this train recently? Say within the last 6 months. Or maybe taken their train from Tucuman to BA?

Also, when how many days before our leaving date is it possible to buy tickets for the train?

Dee

 

[PhilipDT]

You can buy train tickets either 6 weeks or 8 weeks in advance, I can't remember which. Also the train tends to sell out quickly so make sure you get you tickets before you leave. You can buy the tickets in retiro

 

[ajoknoblauch]

My friend and I will be flying in October to Salta where I was born back in 1942. After a week there, we'd like to come back to BA via first class bus to Cordoba (we've taken first class Andesmar and Transit Line buses before, and they are excellent), stay three days and then take the Ferrocentral S.A. train, camerote class, to BA Retirio station. I've studied the schedule, etc. on their web site and it will work for us. Has anyone taken this train recently? Say within the last 6 months. Or maybe taken their train from Tucuman to BA?

Also, when how many days before our leaving date is it possible to buy tickets for the train?

Dee

Given the state of the Argentine rail system - decaying infrastructure and inept administration - I would be circumspect about taking any train these days. Best case scenario - the train breaks down and they send out buses to pick everybody up.

 

[hilltopkid]

Thanks, PhilipDT. Unfortunately right now I'm in Virginia, USA, with family so I'll need to buy the tickets online or by phone from here since we won't be getting back to Buenos Aires until October 16. I'm fully aware the train sells out quickly since I missed getting tickets for BA to Tucuman two years ago for this reason. Who would know the exact date I can buy tickets for a November 1 "camerote" from Cordoba to BA? I've contacted Ferrocentral S.A. and as of now the person who answered my email said they didn't know! Strange.

 

[PhilipDT]

Given the state of the Argentine rail system - decaying infrastructure and inept administration - I would be circumspect about taking any train these days. Best case scenario - the train breaks down and they send out buses to pick everybody up.

The train runs 4x a week and has only made the news for breaking down once since I've been here and I think I remember that they just sent another locomotive

 

[sergio]

Friends from USA wanted to ride this train a couple of years ago. They couldn't buy tickets on line or by phone so they asked me to get the tickets for them. I think you'll have to get a friend to do this for you. I rode it last time about three years ago and it was OK. Sleeping car rooms have upper and lower berth, comfortable beds, wash basin in room. Toilet down the hall. No shower. Food was not very good with only one dinner selection. Too much heat for me. Others seemed to think it was OK. All in all, it was a decent trip. Not sure if it has deteriorated since then. Also there was a little train that went to the hills of Cordoba that I enjoyed,. Took about two hours.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

This is what Argentina needs, The shinkansen trains of Japan. Since Argentina is not too mountainous in most parts there so to implement the rails sytem won't be so arduous of a task as if excavating through large mountains and building the tunnels through it. The first high-speed rail line in Japan was opened just in time for the Olympic Games in 1964, 515km of cold steel that went from Tokyo in the East to Osaka in the West of Honshu. This was called the Tokaido line, and the train known as the Series 0 'Hikari' was operational, pushing the operating speed of trains up to 130mph, the fastest in the world so far. Using a 25kVolt electric feed, the traction units generated some 12,000 horsepower, necessary to pull a 16-car train in excess of 800 tons along to those giddy top speeds in 1964. As a stroke of genius, the traction load was spread along the length of the train, with each single axle having its own 250 horsepower motor (and incidentally, its own set of disk brakes), eschewing the typical push-me-pull-you configuration still used in BR's distinctly low-tech Intercity 125s
Thhttp://www.spencerfr.../Shinkansen.htme second line, the Sanyo Shinkansen line was opened in 1972, and extended the high-speed train facilities tall the way to Hakata, the nippon equivalent of Lands' End by January 1975. Being an extra 554km, that meant the travelling distance between Tokyo and Hakata was an enormous 1,069 km. Unless you wanted to die of boredom on this journey, it would seem that high-sped trains are a rather smashing idea.