The General Urquiza Railway (FCGU), named after the Argentine general and politician Justo José de Urquiza, is a standard gauge railway of Argentina which runs approximately northwards from Buenos Aires to Posadas, with several branches in between. It was also one of the six state-owned Argentine railway companies formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the railway network in 1948. The six companies were managed by Ferrocarriles Argentinos which was later broken up during the process of railway privatisation beginning in 1991 during Carlos Menem's presidency.
Posadas-Encarnación International Train at Posadas
Corrientes station, terminus of Economic Railway.
Train at Zárate station, 1914.
Steam locomotive unloading from a Paraná River train ferry (c.1920).
Railway nationalisation in Argentina
The railway natinalisation in Argentina occurred on March 1, 1948, during President Juan Perón's first term of office, when the seven British- and three French-owned railway companies then operating in Argentina, were purchased by the state. These companies, together with those that were already state-owned, where grouped, according to their track gauge and locality, into a total of six state-owned companies which later became divisions of the state-owned holding company Ferrocarriles Argentinos.
Celebrations at Retiro (FCCA) train station
President Juan Perón (right) signs the nationalization of the British-owned railways with Ambassador Sir Reginald Leeper
Roca
Image: Clarin recuperacion ffcc portada 1948