Background After the
railway privatisation in Argentina began in 1989, the railway assets that had not been given in concession were taken over by
Ferrocarriles Argentinos before being dissolved. From 1996 to 2000 those assets were administered by "Ente Nacional de Administración de Bienes Ferroviarios" (ENABIEF) created through a National Decree promulgated by the Presidency of Argentina. On June 1, 2000, ENABIEF merged to Dirección Nacional de Bienes del Estado. From then on, the "Organismo Nacional de Administración de Bienes" (ONABE) began its activities as an organisation created to manage the assets not directly affected by State activities. Law 26.352 promulgated in 2008 re-organized the railway operations in Argentina, creating two State organisations, the "Administración de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias" (ADIF) and the "Operadora Ferroviaria" (SOFSE). Decree N° 752/08, sanctioned in May 2008, has regulated the activities of the then recently established company from that point onwards.
Further operations train running on
Sarmiento line and
CNR CKD8 rolling stock in
Bragado Although established in 2008, SOFSE became active two years later, when the organisation took over the railway services in
Chaco Province left by
Servicios Ferroviarios del Chaco (SEFECHA). In 2011 the organisation added the regional services of
Salta and
Buenos Aires Provinces. When the Ministry of Transport was created in 2012, SOFSE took over all the urban services not granted in concession of
Greater Buenos Aires. The society also began to operate interurban services such as train services to
Córdoba,
Tucumán cities and other services previously operated by the Government of
Entre Ríos Province. In June 2013, SOFSE took over the
Tren de la Costa when the Government decided the company would be managed by the Argentine State after revoking the contract with
Sociedad Comercial del Plata. In September 2013, the Government of Argentina designed SOFSE to operate the
Mitre and
Sarmiento lines, after their contracts of concession were revoked to
Trenes de Buenos Aires. This decision was officially promulgated through Resolution N° 1083/13. SOFSE temporarily operated the Mitre line until the Government of Argentina re-privatised it, giving the line concession to "Corredores Ferroviarios S.A." (a private company part of
Emepa Group) on February 12, 2014. In December 2014, brand new trains acquired by the
Government of Argentina from
Chinese company
CNR Dalian, started to run luxury services from
Constitución to
Mar del Plata. The classic service continued to be operated by
Ferrobaires. In February 2015, services from Buenos Aires to
Rufino, Santa Fe were reestablished after 22 years. The service runs with brand-new trains acquired from China on
Ferrocarril San Martín tracks. Trains make stops at
Chacabuco,
Junín,
Vedia and
Alberdi, among other stations. In March 2015, SOFSE started to run the
CNR CKD8 trains from
Retiro to
Córdoba. Due to the poor condition of the tracks, trains took 19½ hours to run the . This was more than twice the time that it took in 1938, when services operated by
Central Argentine took 9 hours to connect both cities with two intermediate stops.
Commuter rail renationalisation SOFSE took over Belgrano Sur and Roca (operated by
Argentren) and Mitre and San Martín (operated by
Corredores Ferroviarios) lines after the
Government of Argentina rescinded the contracts signed with both companies on March 2, 2015. The contract terms specified that 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.
Latest news In January 2016, the Ministry of Transport ceased operations over services to
La Pampa Province. The Government took the decision based on the low demand of the
Santa Rosa–
General Pico line and the poor conditions of some bridges that had deteriorated after the flooding in August 2015. In June 2016, the Buenos Aires–Rosario service extended operations to
Rosario Norte Station (located at the north of the city, closer to the downtown) instead of
Rosario Sur, which had been terminus until then. In March 2023, Trenes Argentinos announced the return of passenger services to
Mendoza Province, As the former
Mendoza railway station had been converted into a
tram stop and added to the
Metrotranvía network, the terminus was set in Palmira, distant 5 km from the city of Mendoza. A test ride was run in March, nevertheless it was severely criticized due to the excessive journey time (27 hours) alleging that in the 1960s the travel took only 13 hours. the service (that had terminus in Justo Daract,
San Luis Province) was finally reestablished to reach Palmira in June 2023. Nevertheless, in successive years several railway lines were closed by Trenes Argentinos, in most of the cases the company alleged increasing maintenance costs, lower demand, and infrastructure problems as causal factors. Some of the closed services were the tourist service Mercedes–Tomas Jofré (after an accident where a truck destroyed one of its bridges in 2024; the line had been reopened only one year before. As the bridge was never repaired, the service continues inactive), Retiro–Justo Daract, Retiro–Palmira, and the Bragado–Pehuajó (2024) and General Guido–Pinamar (April 2025) branches. In 2025, several services were indefinitely suspended by Trenes Argentinos such as trains to
Córdoba and
San Miguel de Tucumán, both in December 2025. The company explained that the suspension was due to track repair work that has been underway since a previous derailment in September. == Services operated ==