A fire caused by an electrical malfunction on the subte C line in San Martín station in Retiro this morning caused huge delays and backlogs as train tunnels were flooded with smoke.

As a result of the fire, the C line was closed entirely from the early hours of this morning until around 10am, causing overcrowding on buses and serious delays on the roads of Buenos Aires during rush hour.

Services were resumed later this morning between the stations of Constitution and Diagonal Norte after firefighters were called out to attend the scene. Lavalle station was also affected, and a nearby building had to be evacuated due to the excessive carbon monoxide fumes.

Subte operator Metrovias said that based on the work of its technical teams, the fire started from a duct under the platform which contained the signalling wires. “We found voltage cables that were disconnected, as well as missing cables that caused overheating in the current system, resulting in the fire at the station today,” Metrovías said in an official press release this morning.

The company added that experts and technical staff are investigating the matter further, although the situation is now controlled. They added that no one was to blame for the fire and that no particular cause was detected.

A Buenos Aires court ratified its injunction against the subte fare hikes that Mayor Mauricio Macri announced at the beginning of March, formally blocking the increase.

Macri’s administration had announced that from 15th March, subte fares would increase from the current price of $2.50 per ticket to $3.50 per ticket. A city court stepped in on 14th March and prevented the increase after an appeal filed by Proyecto Sur and MST legislator Alejandro Bodart.

Yesterday Judge Pablo Mantaras ratified that temporary injunction, preventing the fare increase until the city government can justify why it is “fair and reasonable” and implement a “social fare” to keep the service accessible to its most vulnerable users.

The deputy head of Buenos Aires government, María Eugenia Vidal, defended the fare hikes in an interview with TN this morning, saying the money is necessary for maintenance of the lines.

“The national government, ever since we took charge of the subte on 1st January, took all the subsidies and left us with a subte that’s in disarray,” she said.

She warned that the city government will have to make changes to get the money from elsewhere.

“It will be the people of Buenos Aires and neighbours of the city who have to pay,” she said. “We are evaluating which parts of the budget to rearrange to make up for the money that was going to come from the tariff.”

She implied the injunction was a political move, saying “I believe this is a ruling that is looking to please the commuters, but it’s going to cost residents more than a million pesos a day to not increase this fare. I would hope the judge would do what’s right, not what’s popular.”

The Buenos Aires government will be appealing the ruling, Vidal added.

City legislators today approved the renaming of the Entre Ríos subte station, in tribute to Argentine writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh who was killed during the last dictatorship.

The approval of the initiative means the E line station will now be known as Entre Ríos-Rodolfo Walsh, in time for the upcoming anniversary of his death. Walsh was killed on 25th March 1977 on the corner of the station after publishing an open letter against the military junta.

Entitled ‘Carta Abierta de un Escritor a la Junta Militar’, the letter was written the day before Walsh’s murder and he wrote about how the country’s economic policies were having a much graver effect on Argentines than the human rights abuses they were subjected to.

The subte station renaming was initiated by city legislator Gabriela Cerruti, who said during the announcement that, “Walsh is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers that Argentine literature has given us, and his dual role as an activist and journalist left us all an important legacy.” She added that, “he was a symbol of resistance as he was not silent in a time when many were silent. He is a symbol of the people who opened the windows at that time for enter some light.”

This past June, employees of the Association of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP) symbolically renamed the station as ‘Rodolfo Walsh’.

Walsh was kidnapped on 25th March 1977 in broad daylight between the streets of Entre Ríos and San Juan in Buenos Aires. According to various testimonies of survivors, Walsh was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), the main detention and torture centre during the dictatorship.

Subte Stories explores Buenos Aires’ lesser-known subte stops and the neighbourhoods they are found in, scoping out local stories and the best on offer within four blocks or less. This week we get lost in mysterious Parque Chas, on the B Line.

* * *Like any city, Buenos Aires is full of urban legends and tales of the paranormal. There is the ghost station on the subte’s A Line, for instance, between stations Pasco and Alberti, supposedly visible if you strain your eyes in the subterranean dark. Residents of the Once neighbourhood speak of a golem, or clay giant, that came with the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and lies sleeping somewhere on the Pasaje Colombo. And then there is the barrio Parque Chas, Buenos Aires’ own urban labyrinth.

Look at a map of Buenos Aires and, from Retiro to Mataderos and Nuñez to Barracas, the city lays in the neat, ordered grid system of the Spanish. Follow the B Line west, however, up Avenida Corrientes and through the far-flung barrios of Chacarita and Villa Ortúzar, till your eyes rest on a single eye staring back at you – the circular streets of Parque Chas, intersecting and diverging haphazardly, appear like a spider-web, or a pane of cracked glass, on the face of the city.

The mysterious, miniscule barrio – it is Buenos Aires’ smallest – has functioned as a sort of urban Bermuda Triangle in the porteño imagination since its founding in 1925. Like an ill-fated house constructed on an Indian burial ground, Parque Chas, with its eerily quiet streets, seems imbued with a strange, sinister energy.

Parque Chas was unincorporated and lumped in with neighbouring Agronomía in 1976 by de facto mayor of Buenos Aires Osvaldo Cacciatore, in the military’s effort to expunge that which it didn’t understand or considered subversive (a list including tango, Carnival, and filete, among other things). It was only reinstated as a fully-fledged barrio in 2005, though its unusual charm never relinquished its grasp on the city’s collective imagination.

Writing in 2004’s “The Tango Singer”, Tomás Eloy Martínez said of the beguiling, labyrinthine neighbourhood: “Hundreds of people have lost themselves in the deceptive streets of Parque Chas, where the thin line dividing fact from fiction in Buenos Aires seems to lie. The houses, one beside the other, were connected, yet the architects had managed to make the lines appear curved, or vice versa. More than one house had the same number, for instance 184, and various times I believed I saw the same curtains, the same dog sticking its snout out the window. I had the sensation that, the further I walked, the further the sidewalk stretched, as if I were moving on some never-ending treadmill.”

These ‘never-ending’ streets, named for old European cities such as Dublin, Varsovia, Constantinopla and Cádiz, have vexed many a veteran taxi driver and given rise to all manner of local legends. The barrio is said to be populated by exiles, fugitives, hapless drifters from Villa Crespo or Colegiales who stumbled into the labyrinth years, maybe decades ago – and were trapped. Residents know never to accept rides from grinning, sulphur-scented colectivo drivers, who shuttle unsuspecting travellers to hell on the phantom 666 line. Streets circle in on themselves, creating Borgesian portals and interesting addresses (“I live on Bauness and Bauness”).

Parque Chas was labelled el campo de la ciudad (“the city’s countryside”) on its founding, and stepping onto its quiet, sunny streets from any of the major avenues bordering (or containing) it is like being transported out of the chaos of the city – just be careful your innocent stroll doesn’t become an eternal, purgatorial wandering.

* * *

Los Incas – Parque Chas Station is located at the end of the B Line, on the borders of Parque Chas, Villa Ortúzar, Villa Urquiza, and Agronomía. The mysterious pre-Columbian design of the station, realised in 2003 by artists Armando Dilon, María Eggers Lan, and Héctor Pinola, complements the already supernatural reputation of the nearby labyrinth. It is named for the Avenida de Los Incas.

What to do

Hit the books – Like better-known barrios San Telmo and Palermo, Parque Chas crops up often in porteño literature; the anomalistic neighbourhood is an obvious setting for tales of romance and the paranormal. Inquire at a local bookstore or online for copies of Tomás Eloy Martínez’s “The Tango Singer” or Luis Luchi’s “Amores y poemas de Parque Chas”. Hernán Torrado’s short story “Línea 187”, available online, describes the barrio’s hellish colectivo. Finally, Ricardo Barreiro and Eduardo Risso’s comic series “Parque Chas”, published in the late ‘80s, has become a cult classic, though difficult to find. Read up and get inspired before heading into the labyrinth yourself.

Though the winding streets and sleepy plazas are the neighbourhood’s main draw, the labyrinth itself is almost entirely residential. For food and shopping, stick to the main avenues bordering the labyrinth (De los Incas, Triunvirato, La Pampa, and, further west, Constituyentes). Triunvirato in particular is home to some small designer clothing shops for those with a Palermo fashion sense but lacking a Palermo budget. Antigüedades de Juan specialises in antique furniture and curios. Open Monday-Saturday from 10am-8pm, Mariano Acha 1141.

Where to Eat

El Barrilito, Combatientes de Malvinas 3401, (54-11) 4523-4050. Located at the corners of Av. Triunvirato and Combatientes de Malvinas, in Villa Urquiza, this pizzeria serves up Argentine-style thick-crust pies and is a popular local hangout with residents from all three neighbouring barrios.

Where to Drink

Café Rincón Incas, Av. De los Incas 4399, (54-11) 4523-0269. Monday-Friday 7.30am-9.30pm, Saturday 8.30am-9.30pm. Airy, two-storey café offering coffee and tea, liqueurs, and a breakfast that locals swear by. Drop by for a drink at sunset and grab an outdoor seat for a peaceful vista of the neighbourhood. Or, linger over coffee and one of the above-mentioned books before venturing into the labyrinth.

A Buenos Aires court has put a stop to the subte price hikes that would have increased ticket prices from $2.50 to $3.50 tomorrow.

Judge Pablo Mantaras ordered the Buenos Aires government to suspend the new law until the injunction is lifted. The 40% fare increase agreed by City Mayor Mauricio Macri’s administration was originally due to come into effect on Friday, and was postponed after an appeal filed by Proyecto Sur and MST legislator Alejandro Bodart.

“The increase in the subte prices is a severe financial blow to workers who take public transport,” the secretary of transportation, Alejandro Ramos, said in an official press release. He believes that more than 25% of commuters who use the subte would start driving to work if faced with such an increase in fares.

Queues of people formed outside the subte stations in Buenos Aires yesterday to buy travel cards in preparation for the price hikes; stations confirmed that they sold around 40 cards per person, totalling $100 each. However, the demand for subte passes was not as high as in January 2012 when fares rose from $1.10 to $2.50, marking an 127% increase.

Subte Stories explores Buenos Aires’ lesser-known subte stops and the neighbourhoods they are found in, scoping out local stories and the best on offer within four blocks or less. This week we ride down to Estación Caseros and the barrio of Parque Patricios on the H Line, one of only two lines connecting the north and south of the city.

23rd April, 1979. After nearly twenty years of construction and in front of an international human rights commission, representatives of Argentina’s last military dictatorship inaugurate the Caseros Prison, on the tree-lined avenue of the same name. The imposing panopticon juts 22 storeys into the sky. Political prisoners are crammed five to a cell, which are designed in such a way that they never receive direct sunlight. Minister of Justice Alberto Rodríguez Varela likens the building to a five-star hotel.

“Look at how well we treat our prisoners,” the functionaries seem to say, behind false smiles and rows of oversized medals. The commission isn’t convinced, yet the prison remains open.

Over the next four years it houses 1,500 political “subversives”. With the collapse of the dictatorship in 1983 comes a brief instance of poetic justice, as former army commander and face of the junta, Jorge Rafael Videla, is himself temporarily incarcerated behind the prison’s walls.

The prison continues functioning despite the return to democracy, and inmates begin taking matters into their own hands. They destroy the glass partitions in the visitor’s booths. They break holes in the outer walls, and for the first time the cells are flooded with sunlight. From these makeshift windows they throw palomas, or doves – little bundles tied to string – to girlfriends, mothers, gathered on the street below, who send up cigarettes and photographs.

In 2001, Caseros Prison was officially closed, and over the course of five years was systematically demolished floor by floor, starting from the top. Political prisoners were memorialised throughout the process in the Caseros Prison Demolition Project by North American artist Seth Wulsin, their faces reflecting ghost-like from the windows. All that remains is the original 19th century portion of the prison, covered now in colourful political graffiti, its windows bricked up; the property is being considered as a new location for the National Archives.

Tales of rebirth such as this abound in Parque Patricios, in the city’s poorer south. A cemetery for victims of the 1871 yellow fever outbreak is now the tranquil Parque Ameghino, directly across the street from the Caseros Prison. All of Buenos Aires used to send its rubbish, by train, to be burned in the neighbourhood’s massive incinerators, or quemas; the incinerators are now gone, but residents still defiantly refer to themselves as quemeros.

This resurgence in barrios like Parque Patricios is not without its challenges. Villa Zavaleta, one of the city’s largest shantytowns, lies just beyond the Huracán football stadium to the south, a distressing epicentre of drugs, crime, and poverty. The quemeros seem poised to tackle these issues just as they’ve overcome difficulties in the past – with persistence and hope. A community centre one block from the ruins of the Caseros Prison reminds us, in playful filete script, “Nada grande se puede hacer sin alegría” – nothing big can be done without happiness.

* * *

Caseros Station is located in the H Line, in Parque Patricios. As the line extends north, the barrio and neighbouring Nueva Pompeya will be connected with Recoleta and Retiro – two of the city’s wealthiest areas. It is named for the Avenida Caseros, which in turn is named after the Battle of Caseros, 1852, in which strongman Juan Manuel de Rosas (the face of the $20 bill) was defeated and removed from power.

What to Do

Parque Ameghino – Playgrounds and park benches have replaced the thousands of headstones that once dotted this former yellow fever cemetery, though it’s believed that a handful of tombs remain undisturbed below ground. Come on a Sunday to cheer on the local amateur football clubs that compete every weekend, and pay your respects to the yellow fever victims at the park’s central Monument to the Fallen.

Football match at Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó – Huracán is to Parque Patricios what Boca Juniors is to La Boca. Quemeros identify fiercely with their club, and their stadium, also known as “The Palace”, is visible upon exiting Caseros Station, in the distance down Av Jujuy. It’s also used frequently as a music venue. It is highly recommended to go in a group – although Parque Patricios is a relatively safe area in general, keep in mind that a large villa is located just beyond the stadium. To inquire about tickets, visit their website or call (54-11) 4911-9313.

Museo Naval Tomás Espora – This museum administered by the Argentine Navy is the former home of revolutionary hero and first Argentine to sail all the way around the world, Tomás Espora. One of the oldest buildings in the south of Buenos Aires, it contains items and letters belonging to Espora, as well as replicas of his and other naval officer’s uniforms. Open Mondays-Friday from 9am-3pm, Av Caseros 2526. Free entry.

Where to Eat

Pizzeria El Huracán, Av. Caseros 2807, 8am-close. Classic, old-style pizzeria bedecked with football memorabilia and paintings of Huracán’s former greats. Waiters are only too happy to regale you with anecdotes of the club and the neighbourhood. Order a large pizza (between $40 and $69 at time of writing, more than enough for two people), grab a seat by the window, and watch Parque Patricios buzz with activity. Great view of the San Antonio de Padua Church, built in 1907.

The A line of the subte reopened at 8 pm Wednesday after having been closed for the previous 54 days. The cars in the new fleet were constructed by Chinese company Changchun Railway Vehicles.

“We are putting the A line in the 21st century,” said Mauricio Macri, head of the city government of Buenos Aires. Macri was in attendance to lead the opening of the line. Macri invited President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to attend, who was in Venezuela for the funeral of president Hugo Chávez. In her place, Minister of the Interior and Transport Florencio Randazzo attended the ceremony.

The A line, which travels from Plaza de Mayo to Flores, closed on 12th January in order to have its cars replaced. The new fleet, which was purchased by the Argentine national government, cost US$100m. The new cars feature more passenger space, air conditioners that also release a lemon scent, more sound-resistant interiors, and security cameras.

The cars in the previous fleet had been constructed in Belgium between 1911 and 1919.

The line, which opened two days ahead of schedule, experienced its inaugural setback this morning at 10.30am. One car suffered damage near the Perú station, and the passengers had to disembark and continue their routes on foot, without being given an explanation for their premature exit.

“The pantograph came loose and, because of this, the motors burnt,”confirmed officials of subte operator Metrovías. A pantograph is a device that transfers electric current in the cars.

It is estimated that the local government will add 105 cars to the line in the coming months.

Subte Stories explores Buenos Aires’ lesser-known subte stops and the neighbourhoods they are found in, scoping out local stories and the best on offer within four blocks or less. To inaugurate the series we take a look at Caballito’s Estación Acoyte on the A Line – the southern hemisphere’s oldest subway.

Tanganyika, the Upper Volta, East Germany, Italian Somaliland…nations long since expunged from the maps and textbooks now live on only through the silent, colourful stamps staring up at me from the scrapbook; first day covers bearing witness to public holidays, forgotten Olympic heroes, polar expeditions, flora and fauna. The vendor smiles wistfully when I ask to see the stamps from países que ya no existen – countries that no longer exist. Could it be a request he gets often? How many others in this city find comfort, or an unexplained curiosity, in leafing through the philatelic histories of these all but forgotten places?

It’s Sunday afternoon in Caballito and the Parque Rivadavia teems with people – old couples strolling the concrete pathways with their ubiquitous pint-sized poodles, toddlers in smocks painting-by-numbers beneath the araucaria trees. Joggers nap under the protective gaze of Simón Bolívar, sword raised in perpetual sculpted triumph, lord and conqueror of the superpancho carts.

Beneath the branches of a towering ombú tree towards the centre of the park, vendors and collectors at the Feria del Ombú pour over Old World bric-a-brac, as they have since 1943. They are a sea of cardigan sweaters enveloped in a cloud of pipe smoke, examining, bargaining, swapping, coveting. Tweezers in hand, magnifying glasses enlarge their gin-blossomed noses. The tables, arranged in a circle around the tree, are piled high with stamp albums, old coins, postcards written in green ink with an unsteady hand, black and white photos of anonymous family vacations, Soviet pins and medals. Souvenirs from the past, from worlds that no longer exist.

Travel guides love to encourage the clichéd view that Buenos Aires is a “European” city; Buenos Aires is many things and can’t be so simply defined. That being said, it has always struck me as a city of exiles. Perhaps it’s just the romantic imaginings of a foreigner, but porteños, it seems, have always kept one eye fixed on the Old World, a world they were made to leave and which is perpetually growing more and more distant.

The vendor and I make small talk as I waver between a collection of Israeli stamps and some postcards from colonial Africa, unable to tear my inner eight-year-old pen pal away from the colourful pages of his albums.

“When I was young, I could speak English, French, German, and Hungarian,” he tells me. “Now…” he makes a helpless gesture, throwing his hand back over his head. No more family trips to Hungary, no one with whom to speak the language of his parents and grandparents. Hungary may as well be South Yemen, or Rhodesia – its existence evidenced by old stamps and yellowed postcards, yet accessible only in memory.

* * *Acoyte Station is located on the A Line, in Caballito, in the geographical heart of the city. It is named for the Battle of Acoyte, 1818, in which a band of 20 gauchos routed 200 royal Spanish troops.

What to do

Feria del Ombú – The fair is held every Sunday from early in the morning till about 2pm, weather permitting. Most come for the coins and stamps, although books, movies, magazines, and records are also sold by vendors whose stands and blankets spill out onto the Avenida Rivadavia. Come early and indulge your inner history buff and/or stamp nerd.

Where to eat

El Coleccionista, Av Rivadavia 4929, open 24 hours. Directly across the street from the park sits this aptly named café, a favourite among locals for its attentive service and fair prices. After a long afternoon at the fair, situate yourself at an outdoor table or in a quiet corner of this welcoming, airy confiteria and review the day’s purchases. The “Coleccionista” brunch special ($40) includes coffee, orange juice, toast with jam and butter, cookies, and a slice of pie or cake.

Prosciutto, Florencio Balcarce 44, 12-4pm and 8pm-1am (open till 2am Fridays and Saturdays). This Italian restaurant, with its ostentatious neon sign and wrought-iron balconies, is difficult to miss on the tiny Pasaje Florencio Balcarce, off the Av Rivadavia. Classic Italian dishes (beyond the typical milanesa napoletana) are available alongside local staples such as bife de lomo, with live piano music. Expect to pay around $100 for dinner.

Where to drink

The Oldest, Ambrosetti 31, daily 7.30pm-close. With most of the expat pub crowd enamoured with old favourites Gibraltar and Bangalore, Caballito’s The Oldest has so far remained a well-kept local secret. Brit-rock dominates the playlist, while Johnny Depp films play on the pub’s many TV screens. While the aforementioned watering holes evoke a Commonwealth atmosphere, The Oldest is decidedly more 60s oriented – attested to by the psychedelic Beatles murals in the front room. Generous portions of decent pub fare complement a varied beer list and playful mixed drinks; fans of ‘Peter Capusotto y Sus Videos’ will appreciate the “Micky Vainilla”, a vanilla-vodka cocktail with mint. Drinks range from $20-$50.

Mayor Mauricio Macri has announced via Twitter that the subte‘s A line will reopen tomorrow, two days ahead of schedule. The move seeks to benefit users by coinciding with the beginning of the school term, and the remodelled line will now feature modern cars manufactured in China and stations equipped with new technology.

The reopening was originally announced for Saturday 9th March and had already been moved forward to Friday when Macri surprised the public with the announcement on his official Twitter: “Good news: the opening of the #LineaA has been brought forward to Wednesday at 8pm.”

The reopening comes after a closure of almost two months, after 12th January saw the cessation of the running of the A line in order to replace the ‘La Brugeoise’ cars; refurbishments that could not be completed with the line still in operation.

President of the Buenos Aires Subte System Juan Pablo Piccardo said of the reopening that, “we have managed to resolve all of the problems that occurred during the tests with the new fleet. After several days of testing all trains, a rate of reliable frequency has been established. The re-launch seemed timely and important, now that classes have started and more families now need the service.”

The reopening takes place in the midst of controversy surrounding the subte ticket price increase from $2.50 to $3.50, scheduled for 15th March. An official legislative session has opened today, called by the opposition, where officials will debate the modification of the law, as well as potential arrangements for those who cannot afford the tariff increase. The opposition will discuss their intention to modify the law that transferred the control of the subte system to the city government, and regulated the system.

Subte prices will increase by a peso after 15^th March, president of Buenos Aires Subtes Juan Pablo Piccardo announced on Sunday. Tickets will cost $3.50 apiece, a 40% increase from the current price of $2.50.

“We have to strengthen and invest in security because we cannot give a poor or cheap service instead of a good one at a reasonable price,” Piccardo said in an interview with Radio Mitre.

The subte system cost $1,400m in 2012.

“We analised the costs from last year. There are 4,084 employees of Metrovías working and basically the increases in energy and maintenance represented about $300m of increases.”

With the increase, premetro tickets will now cost $1.

The president of the Assocoaition of Subte and Premetro Workers Roberto Pianelli announced that the labour union will challenge the increase because it was performed without a previous Audit. A public hearing will be held on Friday.

“This is a step for them. It does not matter that it will not be binding, because they can listen and correct things,” Pianelli said in reference to the Macri government.

Piccardo also justified the fare increase with concerns of inflation and with a decrease in subsidies provided to the subterranean lines.