Antártida Argentina railway station

Coordinates: 32°55′34.4279″S 60°44′20.4143″W / 32.926229972°S 60.739003972°W

Antártida Argentina
Inter-city
Station building and platform (2006).
Location	Av. Morrison and Wilde, Rosario Argentina
Owned by	Government of Argentina
Operated by	NCA
Line(s)	Mitre
History
Opened	1890
Closed	1977 (for passengers)

Antártida Argentina is a railway station located in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, in the western neighbourhood of Fisherton (intersection of Morrison Avenue and Wilde St.).

Nowadays the station building serves as a cultural centre dependent on the Municipality of Rosario.^[1]

History

Back of the station.

The railroad and the station, then known as Fisherton Station, were built by British-owned company Central Argentine Railway at the beginning of the 1890s. The neighbourhood, originally built to house the company's workers, grew around the station.^[2]

The station was an intermediate stop of the line that started at Rosario Central Station. The trip from this terminus to Fisherton took no more than 15 minutes (a comparable bus trip at present may take 45 minutes). After leaving Fisherton, in the periphery of Rosario's urban area, the line served towns west of the city and reached the city of Córdoba. Around 1935–1940, immediately after the "golden age" of Argentine railways, the station managed around 100,000 passengers a year.^[3]

In 1948 the government of Juan Perón nationalised the Argentine railway network and fused several companies. After Central Córdoba Railway became part of Ferrocarril Mitre network, the station was renamed as "Antártida Argentina" (Argentine Antarctica), and was left under the control of the State-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos, that managed all the railway lines after nationalisation.

In 1977 most passenger train services of Argentina were eliminated, and Antártida Argentina station was closed as well. The building was left largely abandoned.

The station was restored in the 1990s, though it underwent modifications that have been criticized (e.g. the removal of a protective layer of brick, which may greatly reduce the durability of the building).^[4]

The facilities were left in charge of the Nuevo Central Argentino (NCA), a private company that took over freight services on Mitre Railway tracks. Nevertheless, the NCA lent the station to the Municipality of Rosario to host several cultural activities for the neighbors.^[1]

References

1. "Centro Cultural Fisherton", Municipality of Rosario
2. "Historia Ferroviaria de Rosario", Asociación Rosarina Amigos del Riel, 4 Feb 2009 (Archive)
3. "Rieles que corren sobre la memoria y el porvenir", La Capital, 10 Apr 2005
4. "Estación Rosario Central - Ataque al corazón de la ciudad" on Lexia.com (Archive)