The head of the National Portfolio was the protagonist of a festive day in the town of Andino, in the province of Santa Fe, inaugurating the Andino station in Santa Fe, a new intermediate stage of the train to Tucumán, becoming thus the city number 76 reconnected in Argentina.

Within this framework and accompanied by the director of operations of Trenes Argentinos, Eliana Gramigna, the Minister of Transport, Diego Giuliano, expressed: “These projects become a reality when there are local leaders who understand the importance of the rail service . The first thing that Sergio Massa told me when I arrived at the Ministry of Transport was to “generate 8 metropolitan trains inside Argentina, they will equip them, like what is happening inside AMBA and in the city of Buenos Aires”. And that’s what we did, starting with the train from Gran Salta, which seemed impossible, then the one from Cordoba, the one from Paraná and Cañada de Gómez-Rosario. It is a public investment. State resources are either invested in financial speculation and cycling, or in things like these, which consist in generating rail transport in the country that communicates with us”.

And he said: “Supporting rail investment in Argentina is a decision. During the four years of the previous management, 12 branches were lost and in three and a half years we were able to open 20 railway branches and 3,000 kilometers of track, which makes us proud. The train is an economical and ecological means of communication that evokes history, but also brings us the present and the future”.

For his part, the leader of the Andino community, José Abraham, said: “I am more than grateful to the Ministry of Transport and in particular to Diego Giuliano, someone who has the power and the political decision to say ‘the train will stop at Andino.’ ‘It is an additional opportunity for the whole city, so that the cities can come closer together and generate opportunities for studies, employment and tourism. I am one of those who think that the homeland was made on horseback, but it was also made by train, and today the train is present in Andino”.

The service will start stopping at Andino station from October and ticket sales will start in September. The development of the station was carried out by the municipality. It should be remembered that trains to Cevil Pozo (Tucumán) depart from Retiro on Wednesdays and Sundays and trains to Retiro depart from Cevil Pozo on Tuesdays and Fridays. It has 20 stations, spread across 5 jurisdictions and 16 parties/departments. From January to July this year, 56,312 passengers have already travelled.

Railway works in Santa Fe

The National Ministry of Transport, led by Diego Giuliano, in rail matters in the province of Santa Fe, reactivated in August 2022, after 46 years, the rail service that connects Cañada de Gómez to Rosario and benefits more than 3,000 passengers per months, with intermediate stops at the stations of Correa, Carcarañá, San Gerónimo, Roldán, Funes and Antártida Argentina, where the road improvement works of the reactivated section are currently being carried out. The railway workshops of San Cristóbal have also been renovated and are operating at the service of Belgrano Cargas with the latest generation machinery.

In the province of Santa Fe also, other remarkable railway works are under development. Work on the City of Santa Fe Freight Rail Ring Road is already 40% complete. These works will prevent the freight train from crossing the capital Santa Fe and thus reduce the travel time by almost 8 hours, thus quintupling the trains that access the port of Timbúes; In addition, work is underway for the construction of the La Ribera rail shunting yard, in the city of Oliveros, which will serve as rail access to the southern ports of the Rosario metropolitan area, and the construction of a new forming site at Lagune Paiva, North; while in the workshops of Rufino and San Cristóbal, hangars for underground lathes are being built and works of art are being made in branch C of San Justo.