The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of EnterpriseFraser, John Foster
History
The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of Enterprise
Fraser, John Foster
Argentina -- Description and travel
Twelve passenger trains journey daily between Buenos Aires and Rosario.
Until Mr. Pearson came along with fresh ideas most of the passenger
traffic was by night. Trains left both places at ten o'clock; the
passengers went to bed, and early next morning the destination was
reached. Now there are two day express trains completing the journey in
just under five hours. Only first-class passengers travel by these
trains, as excellent as the expresses between New York and Philadelphia.
There is nothing in the way of scenery to move one to rapture; but there
is good agricultural progress on either side. The line is being double
tracked and stone ballasted, and the running is comfortable. And sitting
in this train, thronged with business men, whilst the great engine tears
along to keep to scheduled time, you understand something of the spirit
of modern Argentina.
Amongst the cities of the world Buenos Aires takes thirteenth place in
size. With its population of a million and a half, long-distance
electric tramcars and the institution of an "underground" system are
not enough. High rents are driving many thousands to the suburbs, and
when, in the morning, the rush of trains begins to deliver throngs of
men and women into the heart of "B.A.," the scene is animated. All the
big companies running out of "B.A." are nursing their valuable suburban
traffic. The Central Argentine is electrifying over forty-four miles of
double track in the neighbourhood of the city. This company, in the
suburban section of its system, now carries 15,000,000 passengers a
year. All the trains of the company run 889,000 miles a month. A
handsome new station is being erected on the site of the old Retiro. I
was able to inspect the latest pneumatic system of signalling. When at
Rosario I went over the extensive workshops, and although it would be
idle even to suggest they compared with Crewe, Swindon, or Doncaster,
considering most of the parts are imported, they are comprehensive
works, and the machinery of the best.
Since Mr. Pearson has been in charge the Central Argentine has taken to
running excursions, and encouraging the holiday makers in the flat lands
to go and seek bracing air in the Cordoba mountains. Alta Gracia--of
which more anon--an old Spanish town which has been drowsing in the sun
for several centuries, is now one of the most popular of holiday
haunts.
But, though naturally enough the average passenger considers a railway
line from the way it ministers to his needs, it is the goods traffic
which is of first importance to railways in a country like Argentina. I
went on the Central Argentine line as far north as Tucuman, and as far
west as Cordoba and Rio Cuarto, and beheld the richness of the plains.
There were endless miles of wheat and maize and linseed; there were the
great herds of cattle and sheep. I witnessed the sugar cane harvest in
the north in full swing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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