The rail freight service between the Argentinian north-western province of Jujuy and Buenos Aires has resumed last month. The line had been closed for ten years. Re-opening of the line is set to reduce freight transportation costs between the locations by thirty per cent.

Jujuy is one of the most unpopulated and poorest provinces of Argentine, with the agricultural sector being the key industry. The objective of the rail freight service is exporting its agricultural commodities to Europe through the Buenos Aires Port.

The first train departed on 8 February, embarking on a 1,480 kilometer long journey. It had ten wagons, carrying a total of 460 tonnes of legumes. The service is expected to reduce the logistic costs of the journey between Jujuy and Buenos Aires by thirty per cent, compared with the same operation by road, according to Argentine government data.

Belgrano Plan

This new rail freight service is a key factor of the governmental Belgrano Plan, which aims to develop and update transport infrastructure in the northern provinces to equilibrate the huge economic differences with Buenos Aires. In addition, the Argentinian government wants to update the railway infrastructure in the other northern provinces (Salta, Chaco, Tucuman, Santiago del Estero and Santa Fe), where rail freight volumes are expected to reach 4.4 million tonnes in 2019, five times more than in 2015.