Buenos Aires Underground rolling stock
The Buenos Aires Underground has one of the most diverse metro fleets in the world, and has had some of the oldest models in operation on any network.
Recently there have been increased efforts to modernise and standardise the fleets, with large purchases from China CNR Corporation and Alstom.
[5] Only in 2010s were there moves towards re-standardising and modernising the fleet whilst retiring the ageing trains which had served since the opening of each respective line.
The original La Brugeoise rolling stock has been maintained, some as exhibits and some being converted to 1500V to run tourist services on the line.
[20] In December 2013 a law was passed which meant that the entire La Brugeoise fleet would receive protection status and would thus only be donated to organisations dedicated to their restoration and preservation.
[21] The three surviving UEC Preston cars serve on the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway above-ground in the neighbourhood of Caballito.
Two Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel also have been donated to the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway, but the fate of the rest of the fleet is still unclear.
[22] On 1 February 2018, the Buenos Aires Heritage Tramway received a donation from SBASE consisting of a Metropolitan Cammell and a Siemens-Fabricaciones Militares.
[23] Rolling stock of the Buenos Aires Underground as of July 2024[update] (may not be current for all models).
In the mid-2010s, the Underground was in a transitional period where temporary rolling stock was serving on numerous lines while orders arrived from China and Brazil.
The older Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel cars were completely retired from the network, thus reducing the average age of the rolling stock significantly.
These were withdrawn from service on 12 January 2013, 11 months before their 100th anniversary and replaced by 45 new 200 Series cars built by China CNR Corporation.
[47] However, the Chinese cars were not sufficient to cover the entire fleet of the line, so it had to be supplemented by a temporary fleet of 35 Fiat-Materfer cars, which was still not enough to replace the 120 La Brugeoise units and thus Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel stock reformed by the Emepa Group was also added to the line to make up the numbers.
The 36 Spanish cars were of lower quality and reliability than the Japanese trains, despite being newer, and suffered a series of mechanical issues following their integration into the line.
[35] The purchase of the CAF 6000 rolling stock has been met with criticism due to major alterations that were made to the line to accommodate the cars' height, as well as the fact that the second-hand units were not significantly cheaper than simply purchasing new rolling stock, and were not of particularly good quality, unlike the new Line A cars.
[58] These cars began to be refurbished in 2014, equipped with air conditioning, new lighting and upholstery, among other changes.
[60] From 2014, 30 additional cars, belonging to the newer 5000 Series, were purchased from the Nagoya Municipal Subway and arrived in the country.
For this purpose, 120 new Alstom Metropolis 300 Series cars were ordered from Brazil and began arriving in Buenos Aires in August 2015 in time for the line's extension northwards to Santa Fe.
