Milei cutbacks sends Buenos Aires’ railways back to 1990s

Ever since President Javier Milei arrived at the Casa Rosada, the railway system of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area has become a postcard of fiscal adjustment and institutional uncertainty. 

In today’s Argentina, modernisation promises live side-by-side with slower trains, run down stations and a union atmosphere reminiscent of the darkest days of 1990s privatisation era.

In mid-2024, the Milei government declared a public railway emergency for three years, coupling it with the promise to invest some US$2.2 billion in signalling, automatic braking and renovation of tracks and stations. Yet according to reports compiled by the Transport Secretariat itself, only 20 percent of the allocated budget was used last year.

During the same period, Trenes Argentinos Operaciones – the state company which manages the urban system – was left leaderless for months. Political vagueness halted key decisions on purchases, tenders and maintenance.

In the meantime, the service suffers: trains are running at low speeds of 30 km/h, disruptions are now daily and cancellations on lines such as Sarmiento, San Martín and Mitre are common. La Fraternidad, the drivers’ union, warns that “security conditions are getting worse by the day” and denounced the lack of investment in preventive maintenance.

Milei’s chainsaw has also reached the rails. The closing of Trenes Argentinos Capital Humano (DECAHF) led to 1,400 dismissals and was interpreted by unions as the first step in a major scrapping plan. Within the state railway holding, 3,000 more dismissals are projected. Some ticket offices and workshops in Greater Buenos Aires are already operating with reduced staff or are closed.

The Executive Branch holds that it wants to “reorganise inefficient structures” and reduce subsidies. However, the metropolitan system continues to depend – by around 90 percent – on state contributions, while fares have remained frozen since September 2024, at around 280 pesos for the first section of lines.

In the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, millions of people depend on the train to get to work. The combination of an adjustment and lack of maintenance leads to a vicious circle: longer journeys, less frequency and more congestion, not to mention late arrivals at the workplace.

The Roca and Mitre lines maintain an acceptable level of service due to the investment inherited from the previous administration, but the Belgrano Sur and San Martín lines are suffering, with trains often running behind schedule.

Sources in the sector explain that the network is not “collapsed” but “is hanging on by a thread.” Chinese trains purchased between 2014 and 2019 are still the only technological relief, although the rolling stock shows wear and tear, without any new spare parts.

The similarities with Menem’s decade are hard to ignore. A lack of political leadership, disinvestment, dismissals and rumours of privatisation rekindle the memory of railway dismantling in the 1990s, when thousands of kilometres of tracks were closed and over 70,000 workers were sacked or laid-off.

Unlike then, today’s system maintains a solid state base and some modernisation, but analysts warn that the current path might revert two decades of partial recovery. “We’re on the brink of repeating the mistakes of the past: defunding first to justify a concession later,” a source from the railway union stated.

The Milei government’s dilemma is clear: reducing the deficit without dismantling an essential service. So far, decisions seem to prioritise fiscal saving above technical planning. Without any sustained investment or professional management, the metropolitan railway system nears a critical point.

Trains in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area are not as bad as they were in the 1990s, but the sector is now at its worst time then. If the railway emergency does not translate into actual improvements, the country could go back to a scenario which was thought to have been overcome: that of slow, run-down and forgotten trains.