Background in 1870 with the different
railway terminals prior to the opening of the Central Station. From the 1850s onwards,
railway lines began to connect the city of Buenos Aires with the surrounding cities and ports. All the different
British railway companies then operating in Argentina initially opened each their own
railway station as the
terminals of their railway lines originating in Buenos Aires. Eventually, however they managed to reach an agreement to share a
joint station, thus allowing passengers to connect conveniently between them. By August 1872 all the railway companies operating in the city signed the agreement for a common use of the Central Station, which until then had been owned by
Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway (BA&EP). The new station was inaugurated on 12 August 1872 in a ceremony attended by the
President of Argentina Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. The use of the station was shared by five railway companies, the
Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway (BA&EP), the
Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR), the
Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway (BA&P), the
Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway (BA&R), the
Buenos Aires Northern Railway (BANR) and the
Central Argentine Railway (CA). . The Central Station was located by the
Rio de la Plata, next to the current
Casa Rosada on the corner of Paseo de Julio Avenue (currently
Avenida Leandro N. Alem) and Piedad street (today Bartolomé Mitre), between Paseo de Julio and the wall that protected the riverbank. Trains arrived from the South by means of an iron
viaduct on tall columns, that extended from
Casa Amarilla station to Victoria street (the current Hipólito Yrigoyen street). The route of the viaduct would later be used to build the
Paseo Colón Avenue. To allow for access to the Central Station, on 1 October 1872 the
Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) also opened a short connecting
branch line from Barracas al Norte station (the current
Hipólito Yrigoyen railway station) to
Tres Esquinas railway station on the
Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway (BA&EP).
The station with the passenger pier and customs entrance. When the Central Station was opened, the tracks ran from north to south directly alongside what was then the shores of the
Río de la Plata. The
Taylor Customs House with its loading bay was located in the south end of the station, and at the north end was the entrance to the passenger pier. The modern
station building, built in wood, was brought from
Great Britain by entrepreneur
William Wheelwright, although it had originally been intended to be used in
India (then a British colony). It had a
slate mansard roof and a little tower with a clock and a dome on the top. The station had a platform over the main track and other two. Its structure also included two coffeehouses and two ladies rooms. ) and the Central Station, 1895. The Central Station served as terminus not only for
BA & Ensenada but for other railways such as
BA Western,
BA & Rosario and
BA & Northern.
Closure A sudden economic and population boom led the new
President of Argentina,
Julio Roca, to commission the development in 1881 of an ambitious port to supplement the recently developed facilities at
La Boca, in Buenos Aires' southside. The project required the
reclaiming of over 200 hectares (500 acres) of underwater land from the Rio de la Plata off the station. When the
Puerto Madero was inaugurated in 1897, the railway tracks blocked the lands and the access from the city to the port of Buenos Aires, therefore many people opposed the railway transit across the city of Buenos Aires. During the 1890s the National Government considered moving the Central Station to the Puerto Madero, although it was never carried out. On February 14, 1897, the station was completely destroyed by fire. The next day, the company built some wood shacks to sell tickets as a replacement of the destroyed station, but they were removed by the Government of the city. On March 19 the
National Government ordered to remove all tracks from Casa Amarilla to Retiro, also forbidding Central Station was reconstructed. Finally, on July 1, the line was closed. As a result, the railway companies existing by then (
BA & Rosario,
Central Argentine and
BA & Pacific) had to leave the place, moving to
Retiro station, where they have remained until present days. BA&E established Venezuela station as terminus, although shortly after it was moved to
Casa Amarilla. ==References==