The Six on route to Retiro. (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

The terminal, which is expected to open in September 2015, is being developed in a bid to reduce traffic levels at the city’s Retiro terminal; new bus routes are expected to absorb up to 40% of the traffic from Retiro.

The project also aims to help develop the Villa Soldati region, a neighbourhood in the south of Buenos Aires, and attract more investment into the area. The terminal is expected to cost around $90m in construction costs, and will service medium-to-long distance journeys, 24 hours every day of the year.

Economic development minister for Buenos Aires, Francisco Cabrera said: “There has so far only been one bus station in this city and soon, the residents of Villa Lugano, Villa Soldati and Mataderos will not have to cross the city in order to travel to Mar del Plata and other regions.”

The government-backed project will be managed by the Terminales Terrestres Argentina, which is also responsible for the operation of the Retiro bus terminal. The company will pay the Buenos Aires city government a fee of $400,000 a month for 18 years, with the option to buy at the end of this period.

The new terminal development will also include onsite cafes, restaurants and shops.

Minister of the Interior and Transport Florencio Randazzo (photo by Cesar Auspitz on Wikipedia)

Minister of the Interior and Transport, Florencio Randazzo, and Security Secretary, Sergio Berni, announced today that they will increase the presence of security forces on main railway lines.

Randazzo announced that they will expand the presence of federal security forces to guard the stations of main railway branches, including the Mitre and Sarmiento lines. Randazzo spoke of the upcoming increase in the number of coast guards and gendarmes patrolling, and anticipated that there will also be a higher presence within cars.

Randazzo announced that “it was determined that the priority is the coverage of railway lines, so a reallocation of tasks was ordered”, and that “there will be some officers performing overtime.” The Minister also announced that there would be 2,000 new agents on the lines in the forthcoming months.

During the press conference held at the Casa del Gobierno, Randazzo spoke of how the good results obtained from the implementation of the plan in some of the stations on the Mitre line had led President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to extend the programme, in order to ensure the safety of users.

Randazzo continued by announcing that “there will be 47 stations covered, we have determined the stations of greater conflict, and we intend for both coast guards and gendarmes to be present, and because most of the crimes occur when there is the least amount of passengers, it is during these times when we will have officers going into the carriages.”

In addition, the Minister explained that from tomorrow they will expand the presence of security forces on the Mitre, Sarmiento, Urquiza and Belgrano Sur stations, and said that from Monday the plan will be implemented on the San Martín and Roca lines.

The announcement comes after an incident on a train in the Sarmiento line this weekend when someone set fire to a mattress and threw it onto the tracks. Passengers panicked and attempted to flee the train, leading 10 people to suffer minor injuries. The incident occurred 500 metres from Once station, and staff are still attempting to identify the person responsible from CCTV footage, although it has been suggested that the situation was a “sabotage” against the company running the service.

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.

The president of Subterráneos de Buenos Aires (SBASE), Pablo Piccardo, said that the government is analysing the possibility of raising subte fares during peak hour, to encourage passengers to travel at different times of the day.

In an interview with Radio América, Piccardo explained the initiative by stating that “60% of those who travel during peak hour are going to work, and the rest are doing other activities,” and added that “around 20 or 25% of people would be willing to travel at a different time if they were offered a cheaper fare.” He suggested that the increased fare could be applied “for example between 8 and 10am,” not only on the subte but also on buses and trains.

However, the president of SBASE said that this is not something the government is looking at implementing in the short term, and that they are studying different options. He confirmed that for the time being the only concrete pricing policy towards the subte is the public audience that has been called to raise the fare to $3.50, an increase that “tries to to reflect the 2012 inflation.”

Subte - Line A (photo by Beatrice Murch)

Asked about the closure of the A line, Piccardo stated it will not be necessary to add special buses to cover the route along Av. Rivadavia, as 50% of passengers will be able to replace the service using other subte lines such as B and E, where more cars have been added.

In an interview with newspaper La Nación, Piccardo also informed that SBASE is initiating a tender process to buy 105 new cars for the A line. From 8th March, 45 new Chinese trains purchased by the national government and six pre-existing Fiat trains will replace the 100-year old ‘La Brugeoise’ cars that were decommissioned on Friday. The city government wants to add 11 trains at a cost of $945m and move the Fiat trains to other lines. This way, they expect to be able to open the stations of Nazca and Flores, which were completed in 2006 but remain closed due to a lack of trains. The new cars are expected to be ready by 2015.

On 13th November, Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri announced the city government’s decision to finally take full charge of the subte starting on 1st January 2013, after over 11 months of conflict between the national and city governments.

Mauricio Macri (Photo courtesy of Mauricio Macri)

During the press conference where he announced the take-over, Macri clarified that “it is time to start taking care of the subte operation,” and stated “old trains need to be replaced, safety improved, and the union strikes that have been causing major halts in the network during the year need to be solved,” at the same time blaming the national government for having neglected the subte issues for too long.

However, in practical terms the decision has not been as easy to implement as the city government hoped. Due to opposition from political parties and unions, the bill to formalise the transfer has been stalled in the city legislature for weeks. An extraordinary session to debate the bill has been called for today, but there are still doubts as to whether a solution will be reached. The future operation of the city’s vital transport service is at risk.

A Year of Conflicts

Late last year, president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced the transfer of the subte service to the city, and the withdrawal of the federal government’s subsidies to the underground from the start of 2013.

When Macri first signed the agreement to accept responsibility for the subte on 3rd January this year, the national government offered -and the city government accepted- a payment of $360m in 12 installments for 2012, to finance the maintenance and necessary works on the subte system before stopping the subsidies completely the coming year. Two days after the agreement was signed, the city government announced the decision to raise the price on the passenger fare by 127%, from $1.10 to $2.50.

In February, the Once train crash caused Macri to review the commitment he had made the previous month, not wanting to carry the responsibility for the underground trains, that are just as old and in bad condition as the train in the Once accident.

On 1st March, Macri denied all responsibility for the subte and the service was left to an uncertain destiny. 

As the conflict regarding to whom the subte belongs was being played out, another important conflict broke out: the subte workers’ strikes. Union members called over 20 strikes this year, for a total of 31 days, that left the six lines dysfunctional and the city paralysed. Workers demands to operator Metrovías for higher wages and better working conditions nearly brought the city to collapse, with the ten-day-long strike in August this year setting a history record.

Subte shutdown due to strike earlier this year (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

The repeated strikes during the year culminated in a final one at the beginning of December. Representatives of the Association of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP), also called metrodelegados, demanded a 28% salary increase and an improved escalating increase for long-term employees: all retroactive to last March. In the final stage of the heated strike, a fight between the two rival subte trade unions -AGTSyP and the Urban Transport Workers Union (UTA)- broke out after UTA workers tried to keep working when AGTSyP insisted on continuing the strike. UTA had earlier reached a satisfactory agreement with Metrovías.

On 6th December, AGTSyP met with representatives from the city government and they too reached an agreement with Metrovías, after which the union’s press officer Enrique Rositto promised “the agreement was successful and there will be no more strikes in the near future.”

They were not granted the demanded wage increase but promised not to ask for higher wages until March 2013 when the official, annual wage negotiations will be held. However, the agreement included the cancellation of two clauses of the prior agreement reached between UTA and Metrovías. Those clauses deducted 1% from subte workers’ pay that went to UTA members’ health insurance and docked the wages of workers who took part in the record 10-day strike last August.

Macri’s Proposal

When Macri now for the second time accepted the take-over of the subte, he faced many tough decisions regarding financing, operation, and maintenance of the system. When the bill to formalise the transfer was being drafted, rumours and predictions regarding its content sparked hard criticism, as there is a general concern over another potential fare increase.

“This was an irresponsible and illegal act carried out by Macri,” says Proyecto Sur deputy Rafael Gentili about the first fare increase earlier this year. “It violated law 210, which forces public hearings when changing a service fee”.

The city government’s project to finance a continued service of the subte network during next year is estimated at $1,054m. The bill put forward by the city government proposes that the money be taken from the pockets of local motorists. The core income to pass on to the subte will come from “a 10% raise on city toll roads, a 5% increase of the high-end car tax, and the introduction of a new tax on fuel, of between 15 and 40 cents per litre,” the bill explains.

Included in PRO’s bill there is also the suggestion to potentially remove Metrovías, the network operator. The alternatives on who should take over the operation and maintenance services are either to carry them out “by the executive branch itself,” i.e., a nationalisation, or “through other private legal corporations,” according to PRO legislator Martín Ocampo. He explains the main project is now “to limit downtime guilds, prohibit the hiring of more staff in the company, and extend the working hours of employees already working in the service.”

Diagonal Norte station on the C line (photo by Galio/Fotopedia)

Ocampo explains that PRO’s plan “not only raises the possibility of a removal of Metrovías, but opens the door to foreign companies, such as Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB),” that, according to Macri, was the inspiration for the audit that culminated in the decision of taking over the subte.

In terms of the labour conflicts, Ocampo said “We are declaring it [the subte] an essential public service. This means they have to ensure a minimum service even during strikes.” He claims “the minimum frequency has to be 90% during peak time and 60% in normal time.” This decision would mean the workers are not legally permitted to call for a full strike.

On 13th December, the budget for 2013 was passed by the city legislature and it did not include any money for transport subsidies. To the disappointment of the opposition the and subte workers’ unions, the transfer was not debated in the session and a consensus was not reached. Instead, it will be discussed further in the coming weeks, although the 13th December session was the last regular meeting of the year.

Deputy mayor María Eugenia Vidal announced last week that if the legislature does not approve Macri’s draft bill for the take-over the subte, the service will be at ”immediate risk” from January. Macri made an announcement after the last legislature session threatening once again to reject the subte: ”If they don’t approve the bill, there will be no take-over of the subte,” he said, justifying his threat by stating that “no one can give back what they have not received. Without law, there is no take-over”.

The Alternative Bills

The most resisted points in PRO’s draft bill are those related to financing and the right to strike.

AGTSyP secretary general, Roberto Pianelli says they do not approve of PRO’s intention to prohibit the right to strike, as “it is a human right”. Pianelli announced the metrodelegados’ support for the opposition’s bill. “The points that bothered us in PRO’s bill are not included in the opposition’s, but the points we find important are,” he stated.   

Rafael Gentili’s Proyecto Sur and the Kirchnerist parliamentary group have both presented alternative bills.

Gentili explains: “We proposed a budget re-distribution that would be enough to cover the costs of the subsidies, with 50% of what is currently collected from tolls and 4% from car registrations, the taxes that are raised especially for the subte, what we get from the new contracts for parking meters and tow trucks.” However, “more importantly”, he points out, “is a plan of urgent works to be performed regarding maintenance and modernisation of the system.”

City legislature (photo by Roberto Fiadone)

Legislator Francisco ‘Tito’ Nenna from Frente para la Victoria (FpV) confirmed last week that they do not support the initiative of PRO either. The Kirchnerist group he represents questions the possible fare increase, the funding of the service, and the alleged encroachment on the right to strike. He proposes “the rejection of the draft bill,” as “it is an attempt by PRO to exercise superpowers over the subte.” He summarises his opinion saying, “the whole project is nonsense.”

Nenna wants to create a single fare for all trips on the lines in the network, ensuring a social fare according to the economic reality of the users, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities.

In addition to funding, FpV’s proposal includes an ambitious investment plan for infrastructure and rolling stock and an expansion of the network. It ensures the representation of users and workers in the Buenos Aires Underground State Society (SBASE) board, and the extension of the night service in certain areas according to the needs of the users.

FpV, Proyecto Sur, and other members of the opposition have now agreed on a common bill against Macri’s. As a response to the tax increase proposed by the city government, the opposition has suggested other sources of funding, while establishing a regulatory framework and carrying out an audit on Metrovías. The project includes a suggestion that the service will be provided by the state company SBASE, which operated the service for more than 20 years, until its privatisation.

With this unified text, the opposition seeks to negotiate with PRO or, if there is no agreement, to build a majority to approve this initiative and defeat the one drafted by Martín Ocampo.

Ocampo, in turn, says the issue comes down to two things. “First of all, we need to have a source of funding to ensure the provision of the service in a sustainable manner, and second, to solve the issue of union unrest.”

Regarding the opposition’s and AGTSyP’s accusations of breaking human right laws by limiting the right to strike, he explains: “We cannot act as if nothing happened, in the last year there were 31 days of strikes in the subte. There is still an unresolved problem between the metrodelegados and UTA, and we have to take the side of the subte user.”

He concludes: “We are ready to discuss, but not willing to change the essence of the proposal, because we are in government and we need that tool to manage the subte.”

What Happens Next?

The subte conflict seems to continue and the risk of not reaching an agreement before 1st January has left everyone wondering whether there will be a subte service at all in the new year. Today, the city government and the opposition will debate the subject in an extraordinary session in the legislature, called by mayor Macri.

Gentili expresses a serious concern: ”We have a critical situation where we cannot waste any more time and the bad administration and urgent reparations need to be started now, or the citizens will have to rely on other transportation means that are in even worse condition than the subte.” He says ”we need to act fast before it gets dangerous and we have more accidents.”

The transfer from 1st January is still an uncertain event. ”Macri’s government is a year late to start dealing with this, and now with this provocative bill the conflict only continues,” says Gentili.

Do porteños think the transfer will help solve the city’s transportation problems? Click here to find out.

The Brazilian government has opened the bidding process for the project of the construction of a ‘bullet’ train between Río de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

The project will link Brazil’s two largest cities in 85 minutes, against the six hours it currently takes to make the 510km trip, and a branch will extend to Campinas, near Sao Paulo. The line will also have stops at the international airports in Rio and Sao Paulo. The head of the Brazilian National Agency for Land Transport (ANTT) had announced in August of this year that “a ‘bullet’ train between Rio and Sao Paulo would be 100% operational by 2020”.

A 'bullet' train in France (Wikimedia: Bernard Pépellin)

ANTT announced the procedure for companies to be considered for the exploitation of the line. Companies planning to bid will have to present any queries concerning the project until 16 April 2013, and until 13 August 2013 to present their proposals. The bidding process will end on 13 September 2013 when a company will win the right to exploit the projected train line for the following 40 years.

So far, companies from France, Spain, Germany, Japan, and South Korea have expressed their interest in providing the technology necessary for the project. The cost of the railway is estimated at US$17.5bn and one of the conditions of the concession is that the company that wins will not be allowed to charge more than US$0.25 per kilometre (meaning a maximum cost of US$125).

While the concession will be given for the construction of the trains and the exploitation of the line, the actual construction of the railway will be defined in another bidding process that hasn’t yet been scheduled.

The national Minister for Interior and Transportation, Florencio Randazzo, held a meeting today at Casa Rosada with Buenos Aires province’s Chief of Cabinet Alberto Pérez and Buenos Aires city Deputy Mayor María Eugenia Vidal. The meeting was organised by the national government to talk about transport issues that affect the three jurisdictions.

After the meeting, Randazzo gave a press conference where he explained the issues discussed. He said that the national government “has one aim and concern, which is to avoid a new conflict,” like the one that halted subte operations in the city of Buenos Aires for ten days earlier this month. On Saturday, the head of subte union AGTSyP Roberto Pianelli threatened industrial action if subte operator Metrovías did not fulfill their part of the deal they agreed upon on 13th August, and asked the city government to make sure this would not happen.

The main objective of today’s meeting was to set up a tripartite transport body, the Metropolitan Transport Agency, as announced by president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner two months ago. The agency will be formed by representatives from the national, provincial, and city governments. Randazzo stated that “there were proposals to formalise the constitution” of the agency and informed that “the government of the city of Buenos Aires will take a further 15 days to make suggestions.”

The minister also commented on today’s ruling by judge Patricia López Vergara, who ordered the city government release the subsidies transferred by the national government for the subte. “The transfer of the subte is a closed deal for us. Now there is a court ruling which tells the city mayor to comply with the agreement signed on 3rd January. She is asking him to use the funds we have been sending since January, and furthermore, she is telling them what he has to use them for,” he said.

Randazzo explained that since January the government has transferred $210m in subsidies to the city, $105m of which have already been used for “operational expenditure.”

When asked about the absence of Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri, who had been invited to the meeting and sent his deputy mayor instead, Randazzo said “You should ask him… so many times they ask for dialogue and dialogue… and today we had a meeting with the agenda that the city proposed.”

In an effort to boost the salaries of taxi drivers and improve the quality of taxi services in Buenos Aires, a fare increase of 25% will be instituted beginning today. The hike will be implemented in two phases, the first with immediate effect and the rest on 27^th of October.

The hike was approved last month by the Buenos Aires city government, with Deputy Mayor María Eugenia Vidal stating that taxi drivers required the increase for their income and to cover maintenance costs. She added that fares “are adjusted every year”.

Many passengers, however, have criticised the sharp increases, and the ways that taxi amenities such as heating and air conditioning come at their own personal expense.

At 11am, a public hearing was held at the Cultural Center of Recoleta to discuss the 550% increase in daytime fare prices, and the 686% increase in night time prices, that riders have experienced since 2003.

The minimum fare will increase from $7.30 to $8.20 for rides between 6am and 10pm, and the distance fare, which is calculated every 200 metres, will increase from $0.73 to $0.82. Nocturnal fares, which currently start at $8.70 are also set to increase by an estimated 20%.

From 27^th October, the basic daytime fare will begin at $9.10, rising by $0.91 every 200 metres. At that point, nocturnal fares are set to increase to $11.00.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner spoke at noon today at a ceremony held in the Hall of Women of the Bicentennial at the Casa Rosada.

President Fernández announced the signing of decree 874, which transfers the transport-related powers to the new Ministry of the Interior and Transportation.

Decree 874 effectively relocates the Transport Secretariat to the Interior Ministry.  The new Ministry is to be led by current Interior Minister, Florencio Randazzo, and his transport counterpart, Alejandro Ramos.

This new body will no longer respond to the Planning Ministry led by Julio De Vido.

President Fernandez stated the new Ministry is tasked with summoning both Buenos Aires Province Governor Daniel Scioli and the City of Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri to work together in a plan to reorganise the transport sphere of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

“One of the first tasks will be the establishment of a transportation agency in the metropolitan area, to convene a tripartite body for all of the national state, the government of the City, and the province of Buenos Aires,” said the President speaking from the Casa Rosada.

To a distracted spectator, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri fighting over the subte looks like two children passing each other the hot potato.

Waiting in long lines for the buses on a day without a subte strike. (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

While the debate over who the subte really belongs to continues, its workers went on strike to demand better working conditions and pushed the city to the brink of collapse for 36 hours. It was the eleventh strike since the beginning of the year, and the above-mentioned distracted spectator was forced to wait endless hours in line to catch a bus crammed with people, trying to make their way around the jam-packed roads of the city.

A twelfth strike that threatened to last 72 hours was avoided at the last minute when the subte workers’ unions and operator Metrovias S.A. came to an agreement over a 10-15% salary increase, still far from the 28% one demanded.

More than one journalist, however, has defined it “a precarious truce”.

Grupo Roggio, the company controlling Metrovias and holding the concession to run the subte since its privatisation in 1994, “promised money [to its workers], and no one knows where it will come from,” La Nación reported last week, meaning that it is still not clear whether it will be up to the national state or to the city of Buenos Aires to help Metrovias pay the promised salary adjustment.

“The demand is still on. The patching is temporary,” said Roberto Pianelli, representative of one of the two subte workers’ associations, Trade Union for Subte and Premetro (AGTSyP). The deal will last until 1st August, when the parties will meet again to discuss a new agreement.

At the moment, the subte situation is at a legislative no man’s land, and this is not good to anyone. What is there really at stake in the subte dispute?

The Story So Far

The salary dispute of these last days is an indirect consequence of the delayed transition of the subte from national to city control.

The first subway line in South America - Linea A - is constructed under Avenida de Mayo in 1912.

The subte belonged to the city for decades, even before Buenos Aires gained autonomous status through a constitutional reform in 1994. In that year, the underground network was also privatised, and a 20-year concession to run it was granted to Grupo Roggio.

Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri had long demanded the return of the subte to the hands of the city government. Then, at the end of the last year, he agreed with the national government to sign a deal for the handover of the subte on the 3rd January 2012.

The contract stated that the central government, formal owner of the concession granted to Grupo Roggio, transferred “only four of the 16 obligations that the state had with Grupo Roggio,” explains Rafael Gentili, lawyer and representative for the opposition Proyecto Sur party at the Buenos Aires legislature.

“Amongst them, that of checking that the company running the subte fulfils the terms of the licence, and the most important one: the power of setting the fares.”

The city accepted the transfer and the responsibility to have the last say on economic matters – a way to compensate the drastic cut of subsidies that came with the agreement. The state was in fact taking back half of the $740m per year given in subsidies to Metrovias, offering to pay only $360m for the first year and not a single peso from January 2013.

Thanks to state subsidies, fares have remained mostly unchanged since the 2001 crisis, despite the increases in general prices and wages. The day after the deal for the subte transition was sealed, the Buenos Aires government announced a 127% increase in the fares, from $1.10 to $2.50.

The following month, Metrovías informed that it was having ”serious difficulties” paying salaries, due to the cut in subsidies.

During a speech, President Fernández noted that with the 127% price increase in the price of subte tickets, ridership fell by 30%.

The Impact of the Once Train Crash

Once train crash that killed 51 passengers (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Almost two months into the 90-day transition window established to regulate the legal framework of the transfer, a train on the Sarmiento line crashed on a track bumper at Once station killing 51 people and leaving nearly 700 injured.

“After the tragedy at Once station […] the landscape changed radically. Macri, without money and with audits at hand, was scared that something similar could happen to the subte network,” explains La Nacion’s journalist Pablo Tomino.

“So he launched an escape plan. […] The ending is known: the subte does not belong to anyone. The destiny of an illegitimate child.”

Ever since the tragedy happened, the subte has lied in a sort of limbo, with Macri handing it back to the national government.

For analysts and law experts close to Macri’s party, PRO, the deal signed on the 3rd January was only a pre-agreement that did not get ratified, carrying therefore no legal obligation for Macri; a big majority of commentators argue instead that the document is binding as it clearly states that the City accepts the transfer of the subte concession.

Macri also used the security vacuum caused by the withdrawal of the Federal Police from the platforms as a pretext to reject the transfer, even though Security Minister Nilda Garré said that it had been agreed upon “on the 20th January and ratified on the 27th January” with the Minister of Security for the City of Buenos Aires, Guillermo Montenegro.

The quarrel soon made it to the courts and to the national congress, where a law was passed on 28th March transferring the subte and a number of bus lines to the jurisdiction of the city. Macri, however, has so far refused to accept responsibility for these services. It is in this context that the subte workers’ wage negotiations took place.

The Russian Roulette: ‘The Subte is just like the Sarmiento Trains’

Those were Macri’s exact words on the 25th May, also adding: “they [the national government] may play Russian roulette with people, I won’t.”

Juan Pablo Piccardo, president of the Buenos Aires Underground State Society (SBASE), a state-owned company responsible for the subte, was sent by Macri to negotiate at the last meeting with trade unions. There, he complained that the lack of investments in the past 10 years have led to a “faulty service, with too-small a network, 100-year old trains and saturated subte lines.”

The subte transports between 1.2 and 1.6 million passengers per day. After the 2001 economic crisis, Metrovías was exempted from the responsibility of investing in the expansion of the network and its trains, an obligation that was dumped on the national and local governments. “The company only cared about running the trains,” La Nación wrote in January.

Federal Planification Minister Julio de Vido accused Grupo Roggio and Metrovias of mismanaging the subte concession and subsidies for personal gain at the detriment of commuters.

Recently, the centre-left Proyecto Sur party presented a report on the twisted business model of Grupo Roggio.

“The scheme is summarised in a poor concessioner [running the trains] and an owner gaining a lot of money from this concession,” Gentili points out. “Metrovias is left with the loss-making part of the business, while the owner with the profit-making part of it.”

Gentili’s words are exemplified by the way the publicity business is handled in the underground network.

“Commuters spend 15-20 min in the subte, and throughout this period they are sold ads while they wander around. Also, the underground network is a space up for sale to install high-speed Internet cables or mobile phones network antennas,” Gentili analyses.

Since 2000, the commercial exploitation of advertisement spaces is in the hands of a third-party entity called Metronec SA, also wholly owned by Grupo Roggio.

Metronec paid a monthly canon of US$125,000 plus VAT for 2000-08, and US$166,000 plus VAT for 2008-17 to Metrovias. The business, however, is worth millions and the contract was never updated to current times: Metrovias still receives the same amount of money.

According to Gentili, net losses for Metrovias due to the lack of income related to publicity are around $27 million per year, while the total damage for the company resulting from this “parasitic attitude” could be around $100 million per year all considered. “Metrovias could use this money to improve and finance its service,” Gentili adds.

The newest line - Linea H - at Once (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Despite Macri’s promises (“are we so stupid that we can’t build 10km of subte per year?”), the underground network of Buenos Aires is still considered inadequate for the capital’s needs, being only 47km long, while other large cities like London and Mexico City have 400km and 202km respectively. As data revealed by the blog Apuntes Urbanos show, in the last 15 years investments worth millions extended the network by an average of only 1.36km per year.

Gentili and various journalists analysing the state of the subte calculate that the underground network needs at least US$100m in investments for network updates, security and expansion.

“Conditions of the service now are worse than they were in 1994 – after 18 years of private management. It is impossible to think about a private investor doing enough investments to run a business [that affects the public],” Gentili points out.

“[The subte] needs long-term investments, while private companies only seek to maximise short-term profits. The state has to intervene. There is no chance for the service to be better if the contract with Metrovias is not terminated”

Gentili also argues that making investments worth US$100m is not a problem for a city like Buenos Aires, “The volume of income in the city is linked to the favourable economic cycle. But a lot of money is lost in corruption,” he says. “Public works are one of the corruption tools in politics. Works are made to last longer, therefore generating more costs for the company.” 

Future Perspectives

On the 4th May, three months after the Once tragedy, minister De Vido announced the termination of the contract with TBA, the company responsible for the management of the Sarmiento and Mitre train lines.

The problematic train lines have been temporarily handed over to a consortium made up of railway management heavyweights Metrovías and Ferrovías.

In 2013 the government is supposed to stop subsidising the subte once and for all, and analysts reckon that by then the cost of the ticket should increase up to $3.70 to avoid a deficient service – or to $4.20, in order for Metrovias to have enough money to make investments.

“Macri will end up taking responsibility for it. In August it shall all be fixed, but this country is really changing,” Gentili says. “However, it seems to me that the government is getting ready to terminate the contract with Metrovias [valid until 2017]. This is the only way to end the litigation without waiting for Macri’s signature of approval.”

“It is a tactical war on the shoulders of the citizens,” he concludes. “It is not clear who benefits from it. […] Clearly it’s not the citizens.”