Randazzo announces US$138mn plan for Mitre line

Argentina's interior and transport minister Florencio Randazzo has announced a 633mn-peso (US$138mn) investment plan to revamp the Mitre rail line. The ministry will fund the whole investment and it will take one year to carry the works out, Randazzo told a press conference. More than half the resources will go towards infrastructure works (341mn pesos), while the rest will be used to upgrade the rolling stock (173mn pesos) and the mechanical workshops (119mn pesos). Concessionaire Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), which was in charge of the Mitre and Sarmiento lines, saw its contract scrapped last May after a fatal crash left 51 people dead and over 700 injured at the Once station on the Sarmiento line in February 2012. More recently, the Mitre line has experienced technical troubles, with three derailments in the last few days that left some 30 people injured. The accidents made matters even worse for over a million commuters, who have been dealing with a subway strike for almost a week and the interruption of the Sarmiento line at night due to repair works. Workers are asking for a 28% salary increase, but are negotiations halted due to a political dispute between the federal government and Buenos Aires municipality over which institution has to deal with the issue. During the press conference, Randazzo assured that the works on the Mitre line will improve the quality of passengers' commute, and clarified that service will not be interrupted during the works, which will take place at night.