The Ferrocarril Andino was a state-owned company in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 which, towards the end of the 19th century, built and operated a railway connecting Villa María

Villa María

Villa María is a city in Córdoba Province, Argentina, and the head town of the General San Martín Department. It is located in the center of rich agricultural land. The area leads the country in production of milk...

 in Córdoba Province

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

 with the cities of Mendoza

Mendoza, Argentina

Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...

 and San Juan

San Juan, Argentina

San Juan is the capital city of the Argentine province of San Juan in the Cuyo region, located in the Tulúm Valley, west of the San Juan River, at above mean sea level, with a population of around 112,000 as per the ....

. The network was later sold to a number of British-owned railway companies.

The FCA was the first state-owned railway in Argentina and was founded on 15 November 1867 with the aim of linking the three provinces of the Cuyo region, San Juan, San Luis

San Luis Province

San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...

 and Mendoza

Mendoza Province

The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...

 with the city of Rosario, via the Central Argentine Railway

Central Argentine Railway

The Central Argentine Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...

 connection at Villa María, established in 1867. Details of the building of the line are given in Table 1.

Table 1   Building of the FCA

Section	Length, km	Date Opened
Villa María – Río Cuarto Río Cuarto, Córdoba -References:* - Official website....		24/10/1873
Rio Cuarto – Villa Mercedes		04/10/1875
Villa Mercedes – Fraga Fraga Fraga is the major town of the comarca of Bajo Cinca in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located by the river Cinca.King Alfonso I of Aragon died at its walls in 1134 while trying to conquer it...		01/08/1881
Fraga – Chorrillos Chorrillos Chorrillos is a district of the Lima Province in Peru and part of the city of Lima. It gets its name from the Spanish word for "trickle of water"...		29/04/1882
Chorrillos –San Luis San Luis, Argentina -External links:* * *...		08/07/1882
San Luis –La Paz La Paz, Mendoza La Paz is a town in the northeast of the province of Mendoza, Argentina, located on National Route 7, north of the Tunuyán River. It has 9,560 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the La Paz Department....		11/08/1883
La Paz – Maipú Maipú, Mendoza Maipú is a city in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the capital of the Maipú Department. It is located a short distance from the provincial capital, Mendoza....		09/10/1884
Maipú – Mendoza		25/04/1885
Mendoza – San Juan		06/05/1885

In 1886 the FCA bought the branch line from Villa Mercedes to La Toma

La Toma

La Toma was a legal declaration made by Don Juan de Oñate on 30 April 1598 in present-day San Elizario, Texas. It stated that Spain was taking possession of all territory north of the Rio Grande River for King Philip II of Spain...

 from the ex-Ferrocarril Noroeste a La Rioja and extended it to Villa Dolores

Villa Dolores

Villa Dolores is a small city in the province of Cordoba, Argentina located in the southwestern side of the province with a population is approximately 40,000 inhabitants....

 to give a branch line with a total length of 226 km.

The construction costs and tariffs of the FCA were the lowest of any railway company in Argentina at that time, and when it began to make a profit, the network was sold off to British-owned companies as detailed in Table 2.

Table 2   Privatisation of the FCA

Section	Length, km	Date Sold	Buyer
Villa Mercedes – Mendoza		1887	Argentine Great Western Railway Argentine Great Western Railway The Argentine Great Western Railway was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a broad gauge, , railway network in the Argentine provinces of San Luis, San Juan and Mendoza...
Mendoza – San Juan		1887	Argentine Great Western Railway Argentine Great Western Railway The Argentine Great Western Railway was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a broad gauge, , railway network in the Argentine provinces of San Luis, San Juan and Mendoza...
Villa Mercedes - Villa Dolores	226	1909	Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina....
Río Cuarto - Villa Mercedes	120	1909	Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina....
Villa María - Río Cuarto		1909	Central Argentine Railway Central Argentine Railway The Central Argentine Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...