I should have explained that the problem that occurred under Peron was the tremendous growth in the number of employees of Ferrocarriles Argentinos. Peron's national railway became one of the largest employers in the nation; Many of these employees were useless -- completely superfluous. The railway became inefficient and enormously expensive. It's true, however, that during Peron's time there were some improvements. This was one of Peron's projects: http://todoferrocarriles.blogspot.com/2011/06/la-locomotora-de-porta.html
The once luxurious Mar Platense train that still operates, seasonally, was imported from the US by Peron over sixty years ago. Unfortunately Ferrocarriles Argentinos did not sustain good service. Decades of ruinous expense and eventual neglect took their toll. I rode a number of trains before the system was privatized. They were unbelievably bad. I remember a sleeping car compartment on a train to Cordoba. There was one dim light bulb working, the window was broken, sheets were torn (I believe unwashed). We sat in Retiro for hours due to a mechanical problem before leaving. By the time Menem took office the trains were in a state of complete decay. I completely agree that Menem made a mistake in privatizing the service without guaranteeing the continuation of intercity passenger trains. Freight service could have been privatized while maintaining passenger service through state subsidies. With passenger trains already in a deplorable state, largely abandoned by the masses, there was little incentive to do so. Nestor Kirchner could have reversed that. Despite his rhetoric he failed to do so. Instead there was a lot of foolish rhetoric about a bullet train -- absolute silliness in a nation that doesn't even have the most basic of functional railway systems. Cristina could STILL make a difference if she wanted to. A revival of the railways would create jobs, get people off dependence on state subsidies and would rebuild the infrastructure for decades to come.
The once luxurious Mar Platense train that still operates, seasonally, was imported from the US by Peron over sixty years ago. Unfortunately Ferrocarriles Argentinos did not sustain good service. Decades of ruinous expense and eventual neglect took their toll. I rode a number of trains before the system was privatized. They were unbelievably bad. I remember a sleeping car compartment on a train to Cordoba. There was one dim light bulb working, the window was broken, sheets were torn (I believe unwashed). We sat in Retiro for hours due to a mechanical problem before leaving. By the time Menem took office the trains were in a state of complete decay. I completely agree that Menem made a mistake in privatizing the service without guaranteeing the continuation of intercity passenger trains. Freight service could have been privatized while maintaining passenger service through state subsidies. With passenger trains already in a deplorable state, largely abandoned by the masses, there was little incentive to do so. Nestor Kirchner could have reversed that. Despite his rhetoric he failed to do so. Instead there was a lot of foolish rhetoric about a bullet train -- absolute silliness in a nation that doesn't even have the most basic of functional railway systems. Cristina could STILL make a difference if she wanted to. A revival of the railways would create jobs, get people off dependence on state subsidies and would rebuild the infrastructure for decades to come.
