Railway privatisation in Argentina was a process which began in 1989 under the presidency of Carlos Menem, following a series of neoliberal economic reforms.

[2][1] This policy was met with widespread criticism and proved catastrophic for the Argentine railways whose service worsened significantly in the years that followed, with entire lines closing and infrastructure deteriorating beyond repair.

[6][7] Since railway nationalisation in 1948, during the presidency of Juan Perón, the network had been operated by the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FA) which comprised the six relatively independent divisions, Sarmiento, Mitre, Urquiza, San Martín, Belgrano and Roca.

[8] By the time President Carlos Menem's administration took over in 1989, FA had a serious economic deficit, with no investment projected and a high amount of social charges owed to the state.

That same year, Brazilian company América Latina Logística (ALL) took over the Urquiza and San Martín lines, replacing Ferrocarril Mesopotámico and BAP respectively.

As in the case of the freight concessions, the government maintained ownership of the assets, whilst the concessionaires undertook the operation of their services as described in their original bids.

[21] Trenes de Buenos Aires operated the Mitre and Sarmiento lines until the concession was revoked after the Once rail disaster on February 22, 2012, at Once Station, Buenos Aires, in which 51 people died and at least 703 people were injured,[22] TBA was placed under federal intervention on February 28; its concessions to operate the Mitre and Sarmiento lines were ultimately revoked on May 24.

[25] When UGOFE and UGOMS were dissolved, Corredores Ferroviarios (a company part of Grupo Roggio, which also owns Metrovías) and Argentren took over the Mitre/San Martín and Belgrano Sur/Roca lines, respectively.

[1] On 20 May 1992 the government announced that all inter-city passenger services, other than Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, would be discontinued on January 1, 1993, unless provincial authorities either agreed to assume responsibility for them or selected a private concessionaire to operate them on their behalf.

[2] Provincial governments that took over the services to avoid closures were: On the other hand, La Trochita was never privatised and closed in 1992 due to the lack of interest of private investors.