The Compañía General de Ferrocarriles en la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CGBA) (in French: "Compagnie générale de chemins de fer dans la Province de Buenos Aires") was a French–owned company, formed in 1904, which operated a metre-gauge railway network in Argentina.[1][2]
The company always faced tough competition from the various large British-owned railway companies operating in the Province who had already built lines in those areas where most profit was to be made. As a result of this competition, plans to build a line between Buenos Aires and Bahía Blanca and other branch lines were abandoned.
Although some branches would be re-opened later, those reopenings were temporal, being the most of them definitely closed in 1977 by the de facto government in power in Argentina by then.[3]
Of those branches, only G remained active but only to González Catán. During the railway privatisation in Argentina in 1992, the line was taken over by Metropolitano, that operated the line until the contract of concession was revoked by the Government of Argentina in 2007. As a result, the Buenos Aires-González Catán branch was operated by the consortium UGOFE until February 2014 when the whole Belgrano Sur Line was re-privatised and given in concession to private company "Argentren" of Emepa Group. UGOFE was therefore dissolved.[4][5][6]
Regalsky, Andrés M. (October 1989). "Foreign Capital, Local Interests and Railway Development in Argentina: French Investments in Railways, 1900-1914". Journal of Latin American Studies. 21 (3): 425–452. doi:10.1017/S0022216X00018502. S2CID145791632.
