1.
Line D (Buenos Aires Underground)
–
Line D of the Buenos Aires Underground runs from Catedral to Congreso de Tucumán. The D Line opened on 3 June 1937 and has expanded to the north several times. The line is currently 11 km long and has 16 stations, Line D was the second line to be built by the Hispanic-Argentine Company for Public Works and Finances, following the construction of Line C in 1934. Construction began in 1935 and the first part of the line was inaugurated in 1937, three years later, the section which brought the line to Plaza Italia in Palermo was completed, bringing the length of the line to 6.5 km. The line was not properly extended until 1993 when it was extended to Ministro Caranza, over the decades it has been discussed numerous times whether to extend the line out to the limits of the city proper. The last of these proposals came forward in 2002 which would have seen an additional two added to the line. However, this was abandoned since the line was already at full capacity after the opening of Congreso de Tucumán station. Line D is the line in the network which will not be extended as part of the most recent expansion plan. Until the privatisation of the underground in the 1990s, Line D was identified by the red colour, Line D carries out cultural activities on stations Juramento, Congreso de Tucumán and Olleros. The lending of the facilities is free for the museum. Line D was originally served by Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock, in 1999, cars from the Nagoya Municipal Subway were purchased second hand from Japan and incorporated into the line. More 100 Series cars continued to be purchased in that decade up until 2009, the remaining Nagoya cars were moved to Line C in 2007 and replaced with the 100 Series cars and with Fiat-Materfer cars. In September 2015, at a conference in Brazil, the head of SBASE gave a presentation in which the number of new cars to be purchased for the line was 84 instead of 30. By 2016, the figure had been fixed at 60 new cars. Subterráneos de Buenos Aires Metrovías S. A. Subte Operator Subterráneos de Buenos Aires, D Line System map
2.
Alstom
–
A merger with parts of the General Electric Company plc formed GEC-Alstom in 1989, the company became Alstom in 1998. In 2014, Alstom and General Electric announced that a US$17 billion bid for the power and grid divisions had been made. The GE acquisition deal for the power and grid division was accepted by EU and US anticompetition authorities in mid 2015, in 1932, Alsthom expanded into transportation by acquiring Constructions Electriques de France, Tarbes, a manufacturer of electric locomotives as well as electrical and hydraulic equipment. In 1969, Compagnie Générale dElectricité became the majority shareholder of Alsthom, in 1976, Alsthom merged with Chantiers de lAtlantique, becoming Alsthom Atlantique. Thus, the business expanded into marine, the next year, it constructed the first 1300 MW generator set for the Paluel power station, setting a world record with an output of 1500 MW. In 1978, Alsthom delivered its first TGV to SNCF, the TGV went on to break world rail speed records in 1981 and in 1990. It also set the endurance record for high-speed train lines in 2001. In 1986, Alsthom Belfort received an order from EDF for the largest gas turbine in the world, in 1988–89, holding company CGEE Alstom acquired ACEC Energie and ACEC Automatisme from the dissolution of Belgian electrical engineering company ACEC SA. Alstom acquired 100% of ACECs transport division, renaming it ACEC Transport, in 1991, Alstoms parent company CGE was renamed Alcatel Alsthom Compagnie Générale dElectricité, or Alcatel Alsthom for short. In 1994, GEC Alsthom acquired the vehicle manufacturer Linke-Hofmann-Busch from Salzgitter AG. In 1995, the acquired the remaining shares in the steam turbine manufacturer MAN Energie. In early 1998, GEC Alsthom acquired the electrical contractor Cegelec, in 1998, GEC-Alsthom bought Italian firm SASIB SpAs rail signalling subsidiary Sasib Railways, which included the former General Railway Signal. In June 1998, GEC Alsthom was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, GEC, at the same time, the company name was changed to Alstom. In 1999, Alstoms energy division merged with ABB in a 50–50 joint company known as ABB Alstom Power, Alstom also bought Canadas Télécité, a passenger information and security solutions company, and sold its heavy-duty gas turbine business to General Electric. The next year, it bought out ABBs share in ABB Alstom Power, in 2000, Alstom sold its diesel engine businesses to MAN Group. It also acquired a 51% stake in Fiat Ferroviaria, the Italian rail manufacturer, in April 2003, Alstom sold its industrial turbine business to Siemens for €1.1 billion. By 2003, Alstom was facing a crisis due to poor sales and over $5 billion of debt liabilities. Alstoms share price had dropped 90% over two years, in 2004, the French state took a 21% stake in Alstom and received an EU-approved French government bailout worth €2.5 billion
3.
Buenos Aires Underground
–
The Buenos Aires Underground, locally known as Subte, is a mass transit metro system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently, the underground networks six lines—A, B, C, D, E, the network is complemented by the 7.4 km long Premetro line, and the 26 km long Urquiza suburban line, with 17 more stations in total. As of 2015, the underground also has 4 closed stations, over a million passengers use the network, which also provides connections with the citys extensive commuter rail and bus rapid transport networks. The network expanded rapidly during the decades of the 20th century, by 1944 its main routes were completed. The pace of expansion fell sharply after the Second World War, in the late 1990s expansion resumed at a quicker pace, and four new lines were planned for the network. Despite this, the expansion has been largely exceeded by the transportation needs of the city and is said to be overcrowded. The entire network was nationalised in 1939, remaining in state hands, the Subte opened in 1913, becoming the 13th underground system in the world, as well as the first in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere and the Hispanophone, followed by the Madrid Metro in 1919. The network was built and operated by three separate private companies and later nationalised in 1939. In 1952 it was absorbed by a state administration, in 1963 it became the property of a newly founded company. All the Underground lines, along with the Urquiza Line and Premetro were offered as 20-year concessions to interested private parties, by 1995, Metrovías took over the Subte under a $395 million plan. In this context, the first proposals for the building of a system were made, along with requests for government grants, first, in 1886. However, the Ministry of Interior denied the city administration the power to license building in the subsoil and for this reason. The first Underground line was opened on 1 December 1913 and was built by the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company and that line was made up of one of the existing sections of Line A, linking the stations of Plaza de Mayo and Plaza Miserere. 170,000 passengers took part in the lines first trip, on 1 April 1914 the line was to expand to Río de Janeiro station and on 1 July was extended to Primera Junta Station. In 1912 the Lacroze Hermanos company won a concession to build another Underground line, the company was a competitor to the Anglo-Argentine company, operating tramways in Buenos Aires as well as the Buenos Aires Central Railway, which later became part of the Urquiza Line. Construction began in 1927 and this line became Line B when it was inaugurated on 17 October 1930, during 17–18 December 380,000 passengers travelled on the lines then 32 cars. By this point, the AATC had only built 48 metres of what is today Line C, in 1933 a third company, the Hispano-Argentina Company of Public Works and Finances began construction of the other Underground lines. Line Cs first section, Constitución railway station-Diagonal Norte, was inaugurated on 9 November 1934 by Agustín P. Justo, then President of Argentina
4.
Track gauge
–
In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
5.
Brazil
–
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
6.
Argentina
–
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
7.
Line A (Buenos Aires Underground)
–
Line A is the oldest line of the Buenos Aires Underground. The line stretches 9.8 km from Plaza de Mayo and San Pedrito and runs all of the Avenida de Mayo and part of the Avenida Rivadavia. On the first day of service, it carried 220,000 passengers. Line A used the cars used at its inauguration for just under a century and these cars were built by Belgian company La Brugeoise starting in 1913 and were refurbished in 1927 when their wooden structure was modified for underground-only use. For this reason, Line A might also be considered the continents first light rail subway, the old wooden cars were removed in 2013, and replaced by modern cars. During the first decade of the 20th century in Buenos Aires, road traffic had sharply increased due to a growing population. In 1903 the city had 895,381 inhabitants and there were 4,791 horse-drawn carriages and 60 cars, while by 1913 there were 1,457,885 people, with 6,211 carriages and 7,438 automobiles. After a dispute, it was agreed that the Western Railway would the line for freight, thus, construction of the Anglo-Argentine Line began on 15 September 1911, with the German company Philipp Holzmann & Cia. as contractor. The total investment to build the line was m$n 17 million, m$n 3 million was invested in the excavation of the tunnel, m$n 7 million in construction, m$n 2.5 million in the initial 50 trains and m$n 2 million for the Polvorín Workshop. The Plaza de Mayo-Plaza Miserere section was inaugurated on 1 December 1913, on the following day it opened to the public, carrying 220,000 passengers. It was the first underground in South America, the Southern Hemisphere, each station had a length of 100 metres and had friezes of specific colours for easy identification. The construction of the Plaza Miserere station was performed by two companies, CTAA and FCO, at that time the station had two tracks for the railroad in the middle, and two pairs of lines for the underground, which were on the laterals. The outside southern track of the subway was eliminated in 1926, the route was extended to Río de Janeiro Station on 1 April 1914 and on 14 July of that year to Caballito, renamed Primera Junta in 1923. This 2 km route has been used since 1980 by Asociación Amigos del Tranvía to run the Buenos Aires Historical Tramway, in 1997 the Plaza Miserere station was declared a national historic monument. Over the years, most stations on the line have also declared part of the national patrimony of Argentina. Unlike other lines, the original stations preserve much of their original appearance, in the first expansion of the line since 1914, Puán and Carabobo stations were opened in December 2008. As part of the ceremony for the two stations Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri drove one of the La Brugeoise trains. That same year, the line was converted from 1100 volts to 1500 volts to match the rest of the network
