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46-594: The termini is Dr. A. Sáenz in the Nueva Pompeya district of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires , with two branches, one to Lozano in General Las Heras Partido (departing from González Catán ) and the other one to Marinos del Crucero Gral. Belgrano in Merlo partido. The line also has a touristic service between Tomás Jofré and Mercedes . Carrying just under 11 million passengers per year,

92-624: A large network reaching cities in the west of Buenos Aires Province and branches to cities such as La Plata and Rosario , although most of the line has since been closed and only a few services still operate. When the entire Argentine railway network was nationalised in 1948 during Juan Perón 's presidency, the BA Midland became part of the Belgrano Sur line division of the General Belgrano Railway . Furthermore,

138-459: A number of different combinations. The introduction of the new rolling stock has doubled the line's passenger capacity. The Belgrano Sur line operates the following DMU services: Nueva Pompeya Nueva Pompeya ( Spanish for New Pompei ), often loosely referred to as Pompeya , is a neighbourhood in the city of Buenos Aires , Argentina . Located in the South side, it has long been one of

184-468: A total extension of 4.2 km. Projects also include the construction of a new "Buenos Aires" station, which will be elevated over Avenida Vélez Sársfield. In December 2019, the branch "G" was extended 9 km from González Catán to 20 de Junio in La Matanza Partido . Passenger trains had not stopped in 20 de Junio since 1993, when services were reduced to reduce costs. In July 2021,

230-514: Is a place of legend in tango. Neighborhood artists designed an emblem for Nueva Pompeya. It shows the church, Alsina bridge, bandoneón and the figure of an intellectual who tightens with his hand, in greeting signal, the arm of a worker. The district has an extraordinary tradition of social assistance societies, like the Nueva Pompeya Social and Cultural Complex, formed by employees, retailers and workers to encourage improvements to

276-505: Is served by a number of community services. In 1940 the Working Catholic Circle opened on a 2-acre (8,100 m ) lot on 1342 Sáenz Avenue, and in 1965 the city opened a Natatorium (indoor pool) of 27 meters in length. The Social and Cultural Complex of Nueva Pompeya, founded by Carlos Valdisseri, one of the founders of the Working Catholic Circle, was until recently directed by his son, Father Jorge Valdisseri, who died at

322-458: Is the Spanish actor José Sacristán , who divides his time between Buenos Aires and Spain. The tango heritage of the district is owed to a great extent to lyricist Homero Manzi . In the corner of Tabaré and Del Barco Centenera Streets, mentioned in the tango Mano Blanca (“White Hand”), a mural containing the lyrics of the tango memorializes Manzi; but, mainly, it emphasizes that Nueva Pompeya

368-466: The Province of Buenos Aires . In both, metallurgical and meat-packing plants dominated the labor market until they began to close after 1980, often as a result of economic policies that adversely affected production, rather than as a result of shifting markets. Nevertheless, many factories remain and others still function as warehouses and factory outlets. Next to Doctor Antonio Sáenz railway station, on

414-476: The Riachuelo and, at the time, it was subject to frequent flooding. It was consequently thinly populated, and was notorious for its poverty and high crime rate. Until the 1930s, when industries began setting up in the area, most locals worked in the large slaughterhouse in neighboring Parque Patricios . Sáenz Avenue, which leads through Nueva Pompeya, is still sometimes referred to as "the street of bones", for

460-474: The origins of tango . Tango was at first often danced (or, moved to) without a partner along the borders of the Riachuelo . First performed where the Alsina Bridge is today located, it gained national and, after 1930, international popularity. It was first reportedly danced by pairs in a tango hall located in the corner of Corrales St. and La Plata Avenue, bordering the district of Nueva Pompeya. Over

506-541: The A.D. 79 destruction of the namesake city; the church was expanded in the 1920s to accommodate the growing numbers of faithful. The church, in addition, exhibits an ornate wall clock imported by Father Agustín de Pamplona from Spain in 1923. Not until 1935 however did bells begin to sound at the Church, after their installation by local expert watchmaker Enrique Borneman. The Church of the Rosary of Nueva Pompeya remains among

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552-525: The Buenos Aires station was closed in May 2018, leaving Dr. Sáenz as new terminus of the line. The viaduct was built between Sáenz and Villa Soldati to avoid level crossings. A second stage of the project included to extend the viaduct to Plaza Constitución, connecting both lines, Belgrano Sur and Roca . As of September 2022, 35% of the works were completed, at a cost of US$ 119 million. The viaduct will have

598-521: The Saint Rosary. Small lateral towers were forged out of iron, as was the ornate main portal. Inside, oil portraits of 19th century merchant clippers and historical events line the walls and religious figures grace the main hall, accented also by religious statues. In the centre of the patio there is a bronze monument to the Virgin of Pompeii. Several portions of the church were built with rubble from

644-583: The Southern areas of the city where today many of their descendants remain. In addition to the district of Nueva Pompeya, they made homes in the districts of La Boca and Barracas , where they often lived in precarious houses they built themselves. As they initiated their new lives in the South American continent, they developed a distinct culture grounded in Europe and, still, all their own. In that lay

690-567: The age of 91. The district is also home to one of the city's largest slums ( villas miserias , in the Argentine vernacular). Swollen by migration from Argentina's impoverished rural areas in the north and from Argentina's northern neighbor, Bolivia , its inhabitants are mostly manual laborers, particularly seamstresses. The district is crossed by numerous divided along the middle by Sáenz Avenue, which unites Nueva Pompeya with Valentin Alsina, in

736-535: The area habitat. Since 2000 they have helped address the needs of Nueva Pompeya's many needy with community dining halls, among them Juanita's Little House on 1340 Sáenz Avenue. Neighborhood activist Juana Isabel Fernandez, a worker made unemployed during the economic crisis at that time, opened the center and continues to run it with the help of the Nueva Pompeya Social and Cultural Complex and other locals. The provident arrival of European immigrants after 1880 practically reinvented Buenos Aires. They mostly settled in

782-429: The burning canvas. The portrait was of the Virgin of Rosario, flanked by Santo Domingo and St. Catherine of Siena . Becoming a fervent devotee, he began to spread its cult and years later, he migrated to Argentina, where he settled in a riverbank area on the Buenos Aires southside and preached the virtue of the "Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeya" to all and sundry. The then-undeveloped area soon became Nueva Pompeya and

828-468: The city's proletarian districts steeped in the tradition of tango and one where many of the first tangos were written and performed. A neighborhood local, the legendary tango composer Homero Manzi , set a very popular tango ( Sur ) in Nueva Pompeya, describing a melancholy landscape (“ Pompeya and beyond the flood ”) that, even today, defines much of the district's physionomy . Nueva Pompeya

874-688: The concession could be cancelled with no right to claim compensation. The agreements had been signed in February 2014, committing Argentren and Corredores Ferroviarios to operate the lines. In September 2013, the Government of Argentina announced that 23 brand-new railcars were to be acquired from the Chinese company CNR Dalian . The first batch of the new rolling stock was expected to be available from May 2015 but only arrived in Buenos Aires in July. It

920-479: The corner of Sáenz and Moreno Avenues, the Buenos Aires Bird Fair operates every Sunday. The fair is renowned for its variety of songbirds, particularly canoras . The Chinese Bar, on Beazley Street, is a representative institution of the district. It was installed by tango vocalist Jorge “Chino” Garcés and is frequented tango fans in search of an authentic atmosphere. Among the bar's regulars

966-533: The course of the twentieth century the district developed its present urban aspect. In 1938 a bridge adorned with arcs and columns of rubblework in neo-colonial style was opened on the Matanza river. A district landmark, it was first called Valentín Alsina Bridge and renamed after de facto President José Félix Uriburu following his death in 1932. The original name was restored in 2002. The district's residential areas are mostly one-story rowhouses. Nueva Pompeya

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1012-580: The first diesel multiple units (DMUs) acquired from CNR Tangshan were put into service. This rolling stock consists of 81 cars, which make up a total of 27 DMUs composed of three cars each and were to be phased-in throughout the year until all the railcars were the Chinese-made DMUs. Prior to the complete replacement of the existing rolling stock by the Chinese DMUs, the line consisted of a variety of diesel locomotives pulling carriages in

1058-534: The former Compañía Gral. de Buenos Aires terminus. The Ganz railcars ran services until 1977 when the line was definitively closed. When the Libertad−Plomer section was closed, the ex-CGBA Buenos Aires station was made the terminus. Trains ran without passengers from Puente Alsina to Aldo Bonzi, running back to the Tapiales junction where they then went to the Buenos Aires station. Passengers waited and took

1104-614: The increasing population in Greater Buenos Aires led the company to add more services. By December 1955, the Belgrano Railway ran more than 40 services per day along the Puente Alsina−Aldo Bonzi section. Nevertheless, the rolling stock had not been renewed since the 1930s and as a result, some railcars that had been damaged or destroyed in accidents were put out of service and were never replaced due to

1150-607: The lack of investment in purchasing new railcars. In the late 1960s and early 1970s railcars manufactured by the Hungarian company Ganz Works were allocated to the Belgrano Sur. They had been acquired by the Argentine State Railway decades earlier and had been running on the northern Argentine railways since 1936. Some of them were used for local services to Libertad and the rest for the long-distance service to Carhué , departing from Buenos Aires station ,

1196-531: The last train ran to that city. Nevertheless, the closure of services in the region did not have a negative impact on the economy of the Province since the rail tracks ran through low-populated regions. Furthermore, most of that region was already served by other railway lines with better access to the city of Buenos Aires . With the railway privatisation in Argentina in the early 1990s, the Belgrano Sur line

1242-498: The line is the least used of the Buenos Aires commuter rail network. The railway line was originally built and operated by two companies, British-owned Buenos Aires Midland Railway that made its inaugural trip in 1909 joining Puente Alsina and Carhue, and Franco-Belgian-owned Compañía General de Buenos Aires (Established in 1908), that built and operated a large network reaching cities in the west of Buenos Aires province and branches to cities such as La Plata and Rosario, Although most of

1288-481: The line was closed and only a few services are active nowadays. The railway line was originally built and operated by two companies, British -owned Buenos Aires Midland Railway (BA Midland) and Franco - Belgian -owned Compañía General de Buenos Aires (CGBA) (established in 1908). The first train on the British owned line made its inaugural trip in 1909 joining Puente Alsina and Carhué . CGBA built and operated

1334-490: The line were closed with stations and infrastructure abandoned. In spite of the large government subsidies received by TMB (the Metropolitano 's subsidiary that operated the line) a serious decline in the standard of rail services led to the original concession being revoked. In 2007, the service was given in concession to the consortium Unidad de Gestión Operativa Ferroviaria de Emergencia ( UGOFE ). The UGOFE took over

1380-640: The many cattle that died on their way to the slaughterhouse, early in the twentieth century. The area was also well known for its many pulperías , seedy saloons frequented by cutlers, carriers and guitarists. Two are still preserved as museums: La Blanqueada and the Maria Adelia Pulperia , which had a patio so large that it served as a field hospital during the 1880 conflict between the Nation and secessionist factions in Buenos Aires . Over

1426-412: The newly nationalised companies added to Ferrocarril Belgrano network were renamed, being known as "G" ( Cía. Gral. de Buenos Aires ), "M" (Midland) and "P( Province of Buenos Aires Railway ). After the nationalisation, several improvements were carried out on the line, including an additional rail track between Aldo Bonzi and Libertad to increase the frequency of the services. The modernisation included

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1472-631: The purchase of brand-new diesel locomotives manufactured by the American company Whitcomb in 1951 (with the addition of 15 new locomotives from the Dutch company Werkspoor in 1955) and the construction of junctions at the Tapiales and Aldo Bonzi stations that allowed the ex-BA Midland line to connect with the Sarmiento Railway near Haedo in Greater Buenos Aires . During the 1950s,

1518-408: The saints in the portrait soon graced the names of two of the area's main streets. On May 14, 1896, the first stone is blessed for the construction of a chapel on land donated by the ladies of St. Vincent de Paul of the parish of neighboring San Cristóbal . Its construction, directed by the architect and painter Augusto César Ferrari , proceeded rapidly and the Church of the Rosary of Nueva Pompeya

1564-778: The service has not been re-established. Because of that, the National Government ceded the lands occupied by the line to the Municipality of Lanús with the purpose of building a park there. In 2015, it was announced that the Belgrano Sur Line would reach Roca Line 's Constitución station through a viaduct that would connect both lines. The project, named "Centro de Trasbordo Constitución" ( Constitución layover center ), will allow near 65,000 Belgrano Sur passengers to access not only Roca Line trains but Buenos Aires Underground 's Line C For that purpose,

1610-570: The service until 12 February 2014, when it was announced that the Belgrano Sur and Roca lines would be granted to Argentren S.A., a company that was part of the Emepa Group and UGOFE was immediately dissolved. The State-owned company Trenes Argentinos took over Belgrano Sur line (operated by Argentren ) after the Government of Argentina rescinded the contracts signed with the company on 2 March 2015. The contract terms specified that

1656-708: The service was extended from González Catán to Marcos Paz in the Buenos Aires Province . Trains resumed operations to Villars, a small town with 3,000 inhabitants in General Las Heras Partido , in December 2022, after the Government extended the service from Marcos Paz to that city. The service had been closed in 1993. In May 2023, Trenes Argentinos announced a tourist train which would run from Mercedes to Tomás Jofré (with an intermediate stop in Altamira), all of them part of Mercedes Partido . The train

1702-572: The southwest, the section from González Catán to Marcos Paz (closed at the time of privatisation) to be restored and reopened, extending that branch of the line after its 20-year closure whilst adding new overpasses and connecting the line with the Merlo – Lobos branch of the Sarmiento Line . In August 2017, Trenes Argentinos suspended the Puente Alsina–Aldo Bonzi service due to a derailment near Puente Alsina station. Since then,

1748-436: The stations would be elevated to match the height of the new rolling stock, while the track was being refurbished on the line, with the Buenos Aires - Tapiales segment receiving completely new rails on concrete sleepers. Twnty-four of the stations would be completely replaced using modular designs, while some single-track segments would be made into double-track segments. In 2015, two important extension works were considered. To

1794-644: The train in Buenos Aires, being carried to Carhué via Plomer. The lack of maintenance caused a progressive deterioration in the rolling stock and stations of the line. The line was closed in September 1977 and the workshops at Libertad were demolished. On 2 March 1977, Decree N° 547 by de facto President of Argentina, Jorge Rafael Videla ordered the closure and dismantlement of more than 4,000 km of rail tracks. Several General Belgrano Railway lines were closed on 1 May 1977, although long-distance services to Carhué continued operating until August of that year when

1840-471: The years numerous tango halls such as the historic Chinese Bar opened and now-legendary names, such as Homero Manzi, created much of their best work there, making Nueva Pompeya the true cradle of tango. According to account history, in the city of Pompeii , (Italy), recently sanctified Bartolo Longo noticed a deteriorated portrait on the verge of being disposed of by incineration; without knowing whose portrait it was, he became enamored with it while observing

1886-405: Was granted in concession to the private company Metropolitano which started operations in 1994. However, the Government of Argentina revoked the contract of concession in 2007 due to poor service standards and increasing complaints from users. Until then, the concessionary had been receiving near $ 30 million in subsidies per month. In the first years of private operation, many kilometres of

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1932-407: Was consecrated on June 29, 1900, becoming a parish in 1905. This house of worship is very distinctive in the area with its Gothic Revival architecture, a style that became popular in other areas of Buenos Aires. Dominated by a single tower, the large windows on the nave decorated with wonderful stained-glass windows of German origin in the form of pointed arcs that represent the fifteen mysteries of

1978-468: Was given its name by the faithful of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeya, raised in 1900 by Capuchin monks. Until then, it was often referred to as the "district of the Frogs." The term “frog”, in the Buenos Aires vernacular, refers to the "street-wise" man, and, indeed, many of Nueva Pompeya's youth are thought of this way to the present day. Nueva Pompeya was largely built on the alluvial plain north of

2024-574: Was planned to run two services on Sundays, with an estimated time of 45'. For that purpose, Jofré and Altamira stations were completely refurbished, adding toilets and access ramps for disabled people. The service was officially inaugurated on May 27, and served by Emepa Alerce diesel railcars. In October 2023, the González Catán–Villars branch was extended to Lozano, a locality in General Las Heras Partido. The service

2070-412: Was re-opened only for weekends although Trenes Argentinos stated it could be extended to weekdays in a near future. The station had been closed in 1976. There are plans to extend the service to other towns of the region that were served by train in the past, such as Navarro . Companies that have operated the Belgrano Sur Line since it was established after the 1948 nationalisation are: In August 2015,

2116-513: Was then announced that the new rolling stock had been would begin running on the Buenos Aires - Gonzalez Catán route in August. The other parts of the line received the new rolling stock before the end of 2015, as the railcars arrived in the country. It was also announced that all the 28 stations of the line would be remodelled. The cost of the investment was estimated in A$ 1,200 million. The platforms of

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