The Forgotten Plan for the Buenos Aires Premetro (2025)

Description

The Premetro might be the most curious and little-known means of transport in Buenos Aires. But did you know it was meant to be so much more? In this video, I share the story of what could have been and how I would approach it today.

The premetro is arguably the most interesting transit system operating in Buenos Aires—a 7 km long tram that serves as a feeder for Line E. Today, the name 'premetro' is more of a marketing term. Still, in reality, this system has a history linked to the very founding of the subway. When line A began construction in 1911, it was not originally intended to be an underground train. The plan of the Anglo-Argentine Tram Company, which promoted the project, was to have a tunnel running through the city center to connect various lines from the outskirts of the Federal Capital. On December 1, 1913, the project opened to the public, and by July 1, 1914, the tunnel, according to Anglo’s plan, was completed. Trams that started from Flores used a ramp on Rivadavia Avenue to descend into the tunnel and continue to Plaza de Mayo. However, since 1926, that maneuver is no longer performed, and the trams now run underground. Over 10,000 km of underground tracks have been laid here in Germany, where a transit mode was born—one that is so popular and efficient that one of the most famous presidents in history wanted to import this model, aiming for Buenos Aires to have its own. But what exactly is a statman? Yeah, excellent question. We can think of it as an intermediate link between the tram and the metro. The history of this system arose because, in the second half of the 20th century, Germany needed to get its trams off the surface. There was an increasing number of private cars, and traffic required more space. Many cities agreed and said the best idea was to take our tram network, bury it, and operate it as a metro. Well, they started digging tunnels in Essen, Düsseldorf, Cologne—everywhere. They began excavating tunnels for trams, and two decades went by. We're talking about roughly the 1980s. Tunnels had been built all over the country, and cities suddenly said, 'You know what? I'm tired, short on funds, this isn't leading anywhere,' and they were left with this unfinished transformation. I mean, it's not a tram, it's not a metro—it's what's in between. And that's precisely what gives it the characteristic of mixed service, which is the signature of El Stad. It means that in the city outskirts, trams still run on the surface because these parts weren’t buried. But in the city center, where the tunnels already exist, the trams go underground. That’s how we get the statman model, just as the Anglo trams did in 1913, and just as this gentleman said needed to be done again in Buenos Aires. He is Alejandro Nazar Anchorena, an engineer who served as president from 1996 to 2002. Under his leadership, line A was extended—from San Pedrito, in the barrio of La San Martín, to Rosas. He was also one of the authors of the famous Law 670 and supervised its execution at the beginning of the construction of Line H. But that wasn't his first role in the company. Between 1983 and 1988, he served as the planning and control manager, responsible for bringing Line E to Plaza de los Biarres and designing the premetro. Here, we touch on an interesting point because, as Nazar himself admitted in an interview, 'The first metro would have to go down at some point to a tunnel shared by several lines.' Not only would it have to do that, but it was designed for it. I do not believe in the tram that shares the street and maintains the speed of vehicular traffic. For the premetro to succeed, it must move faster than microbuses.

Additionally, its capacity to operate in tunnels must be utilized to get closer to the city center. The German statman, the Brussels premetro, or the underground tram are, in my opinion, the unfinished dream for Buenos Aires. It was supposed to be very similar to what exists today—in, for example, the city of Essen, Germany: three premetro lines starting from different parts of the town, converging in a shared tunnel, reaching the center, and then continuing north. This scheme is much cheaper to build because not the entire route needs to be underground. In other words, the only requirement is that, in surface sections, the tracks are as isolated as possible from traffic; otherwise, at the first traffic jam or red light, the train could get stuck. In my opinion, this last factor is what prevents the return of the traditional tram to Buenos Aires—that is, in our streets. At least in the downtown area, where having trams makes sense, they are constantly vulnerable to lawsuits and protests. And I hope that the folks from the Friends of the Tram Association don't want to hang me up after this, but I don't see the tram returning to Buenos Aires—at least not in the downtown area. In this case, I must agree with engineer Nazar Anchorena: STATV is the best model because it isolates the problems from surface traffic. But which one?

Stops

Intedente Saguier → General Savio.

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