Argentina’s government has launched a national and international public tender to concession the operation of the country’s three major freight railway corridors, currently operated by Belgrano Cargas y Logística (BCyL), for a period of 50 years.
Under the process, private operators will be invited to run the Belgrano, San Martín and Urquiza corridors, while the state will retain ownership of the infrastructure and continue to oversee regulation, control and enforcement. The management and development of the three railway networks will therefore pass to private operators under an open-access system, rather than a monopoly arrangement.
According to the government, the tender covers 7,594 km of railway across 16 jurisdictions, connecting Argentina’s main agricultural and industrial areas with ports and border crossings into Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
For a country whose exports include large volumes of grain, minerals and agricultural products, this network is a key part of the infrastructure supporting international trade.
A 50-year railway concession
The concession will run for 50 years, a period the government considers necessary to encourage private investors to undertake major infrastructure projects, including railway lines and terminals, as well as to modernise rolling stock.
The chosen model is based on open access, allowing multiple operators to use the same infrastructure under objective and non-discriminatory conditions. The aim is to move away from a single-operator model and encourage greater competition.
Concessionaires will also be able to benefit from the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), a tax framework designed to attract significant private investment into major infrastructure projects.
The contracts include mandatory works that must be completed during the first five years of the concessions. These include improving freight rail operations in the city of Santa Fe, restoring the former “sugar corridor” on the Belgrano line, rehabilitating the main San Martín corridor and recovering the central branch of the Urquiza line.
Bidders will also be able to propose additional optional projects in order to improve their scores in the tender process.
Concessionaires will have the option of purchasing existing rolling stock assigned to each railway. The proceeds from the sale of locomotives and wagons will be channelled into a fund dedicated to co-financing the mandatory infrastructure works.
In effect, part of the existing system’s ageing assets will help finance its own modernisation.
One billion dollars in investment
According to the official resolution issued by Argentina’s Ministry of Economy authorising the tender and published on 20 August 2026, the investment target for the three railway corridors is approximately $1 billion.
Of this amount, around $800 million relates to mandatory works that must be completed within the first five years of the concessions. The remaining $200 million covers optional works that bidders may offer to gain additional points in the tender, with these projects having an implementation period of up to 15 years.
The government says the financing will not come directly from the state. The sale of existing rolling stock, estimated at around $500 million, is expected to finance a significant part of the mandatory works through a fund managed by the company.
The remaining $300 million would be provided directly by the concessionaires.
To qualify for the tax benefits available under RIGI, individual infrastructure rehabilitation projects must exceed a minimum investment threshold of $200 million.
The company operates as Trenes Argentinos Cargas
Belgrano Freight and Logistics operates under the commercial name Trenes Argentinos Cargas. It is a state-owned company established in 2013 and overseen by Argentina’s Ministry of Economy.
The three freight corridors use different track gauges, creating a fragmented railway system in which rolling stock cannot simply move from one network to another without the necessary adaptations.
This year, the three corridors are expected to transport approximately 7.6 million tonnes of freight.
- Belgrano line: 3,978 km long, with a 1,000 mm metre gauge. It is operated with 60 locomotives and more than 3,400 wagons. The corridor crosses central and northern Argentina.
- San Martín line: 2,505 km long, using the 1,676 mm broad gauge. It has 89 locomotives and more than 4,500 wagons. The railway provides an east–west connection across Argentina.
- Urquiza line: 1,111 km long, using the 1,435 mm standard gauge. It is operated with 16 locomotives and almost 2,000 wagons. The corridor runs mainly north–south through Argentina’s Mesopotamia region, connecting the Buenos Aires area with Posadas and providing international links towards Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay.
Trenes Argentinos Cargas currently accounts for approximately 38% of Argentina’s rail freight market. Grain and mineral aggregates are the dominant commodities, alongside stone, coke, timber, minerals and metals.
The company’s 2026 budget forecasts revenue of around $142.4 million, equivalent to 213.7 billion pesos. Production costs and structural expenses are expected to reach $192.5 million, or 288.5 billion pesos.
The gap between revenue and expenditure helps explain why the Argentine state wants to transfer the operation to private concessionaires after years of losses despite continued public funding.
Since 1970, Argentina’s agricultural production has increased sixfold, making agriculture one of the main sources of freight carried on the Belgrano line. However, the railway network currently transports less freight than it did more than five decades ago.
The problem has therefore not been a lack of demand, but an operating model that has failed to keep pace with the country’s economic development. According to the government, the company has suffered significant economic losses, while between 20% and 40% of scheduled maintenance work on traction rolling stock was not carried out in 2023.
Argentina’s railway sector was considered to be in such poor condition that, in June 2024, a presidential decree formally recognised the state of the railway network as a serious problem requiring urgent action.
The government consequently declared a “public emergency in the railway sector”, a legal mechanism allowing authorities to accelerate procedures, allocate funding and introduce measures without going through the full, slower approval process normally required.
Against this background, Trenes Argentinos Cargas managed to purchase 180 new grain wagons in 2025 and return five locomotives to service after repairs.
The wagons were acquired through a commercial agreement between Belgrano Cargas y Logística and major companies in Argentina’s grain sector.
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