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The Government ordered a railway emergency after the train crash in Palermo - Infobae
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El Gobierno dispuso la emergencia ferroviaria tras el choque de trenes en Palermo
Es una medida que permitirá administrar fondos de manera más ágil. Estarán destinados a la cobertura de contingencias como el robo de cables u otros problemas de infraestructura en el sector
www.infobae.com
May 13, 2024
It is a measure that will allow funds to be managed more agilely. They will be intended to cover contingencies such as cable theft or other infrastructure problems in the sector.
By Eduardo Menegazzi
The Palermo train crash alerted the Government about the lack of maintenance
After the train crash on the San Martín line that occurred on Friday in Palermo, the national government declared a railway emergency . This will allow it to have the administration of funds to face contingencies such as those suffered by some lines in recent months, for example with the theft of cables or damage to infrastructure.
At the Casa Rosada they are already drafting the corresponding decree that will make the measure official, which some officials admit "even the railway unions have been asking for for some time now." They also admit that in the railway sector “the lack of management we found is very great.” It is an area that during the government of Alberto Fernández was under the wing of massism, as demonstrated by the steps through the Ministry of Transportation of Mario Meoni, Alexis Guerrera and Diego Giuliano, all of the Frente Renovador that Sergio Massa created.
In some offices of Balcarce 50 a report circulates with the details of the losses of the different companies that make up Ferrocarriles Argentinos and which reached 4.3 billion dollars in 2023. Due to this deficit it became one of the ones targeted with greatest emphasis for its privatization. Regarding the accident in Palermo, they insist on attributing it more to “a human failure” than to a lack of investment.
On July 27, the National Transport Regulatory Commission (CNRT) completed the report corresponding to last year in which it warned of a complicated panorama in the railway sector. That is why since Wednesday of last week after a meeting between the Minister of Economy of the Nation, Luis Caputo, and the Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta, they had already decided to decree the emergency.
On Friday, a few minutes before the collision occurred in Palermo, on the 12th floor of the Economy, Mogetta was meeting with representatives of different railway sectors to talk about the issue. There Mogetta found out about the accident and created a Crisis Committee.
Railroad workers inspect a passenger train after a collision with another in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The chronic lack of investment in the railway system by Trenes Argentinos, a company that today operates under the orbit of the Ministry of Economy led by Caputo, is reflected in the fact that transfers from the Treasury to public railway companies had a 60% cut in the first four months of 2024 , compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the budget analysis carried out by the Tax Justice area of the non-governmental organization Civil Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ) published by Infobae this weekend.
The state company that endured the greatest adjustment in Javier Milei's management was the Railway Infrastructure Administration, with a 92% reduction. And, among other pending works, there is a tender for the electrification of the San Martín line with a loan from the IDB, announced in 2017, which remains without award.
Trenes Argentinos is currently directed by Luis Adrián Luque , a former councilor of the Frente Renovador in San Miguel, who was already in the company in other functions during the previous management. That company that operates passenger trains in the country was without authorities for two months due to Milei's delay in appointing a replacement for Martín Marinucci , also a member of the party founded by Sergio Massa . Since January 2002, Luque had served as Legal Affairs Manager of the Sociedad del Estado Railway Operator Society (SOFSE) , which controls Trenes Argentinos.
The operation to remove the train cars from the Dorrego Bridge
It will not be the first time that a railway emergency has been declared in the country . During the government of Eduardo Duhalde, in 2002 , it had also been applied and was maintained for years. It did so through decree 2075, which covered all lines that operated in the metropolitan area and even the subways of the City of Buenos Aires.
The digital media Enelsubte reported this Monday that, a week before the crash that left almost a hundred injured and the interruption of the San Martín service between Palermo and the Retiro capital, Trenes Argentinos had alerted their superiors about the problems on the line. due to budget constraints. The report was sent to the president of Ferrocarriles Argentinos, Patricio Gilligan, to the Ministry of Transportation headed by Franco Mogetta from Córdoba and also to Mauricio González Botto, an official from the Chief of Staff of the Nation who is in charge of the area where the situation of each of the state companies that the Government plans to leave in private hands.
Gilligan raised the request for funds requested from Trenes Argentinos to José Ignacio García Hamilton, current Legal and Administrative Secretary of Caputo's Ministry of Economy.
According to that note, due to the lack of funds, the arrangement of the rolling stock was complicated, tenders such as the one that was going to be used to renew locomotives on the San Martín were stopped, and the purchase of supplies and even the contracting of medical services that were needed were paralyzed. They were going to be used to serve passengers and security service employees on trains and stations, among others.
In the State Railway Operating Company (SOFSE), which deals with maintenance and infrastructure tasks, there were more than 100 layoffs in March. SOFSE, with a 56% cut, was one of the most affected branches of Ferrocarriles Argentinos. It is the company that has the largest number of employees, 23,743, and the one that must guarantee the operation of the passenger lines. In 2023 it had a negative result of $47,310 million. For this year, there are planned Treasury transfers of $336 billion, but only 40% of this amount was executed.
