Puerto Deseado Railway
| Puerto Deseado and Colonia Las Heras Railway | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Puerto Deseado station, 1936. | |||
| Overview | |||
| Native name | Ferrocarril Puerto Deseado a Colonia Las Heras | ||
| Status | Defunct company; railway inactive | ||
| Owner | Government of Argentina | ||
| Locale | Santa Cruz | ||
| Termini | |||
| Stations | 14 | ||
| Service | |||
| Type | Inter-city | ||
| Operator(s) | Argentine State R (1911-48) FC Roca (1948-78) | ||
| History | |||
| Opened | 1911 | ||
| Closed | 1978 | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 286 km (178 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) | ||
| |||
The Puerto Deseado and Colonia Las Heras Railway (native name: "Ferrocarril Puerto Deseado a Colonia Las Heras") was a State-owned railway company that ran between the cities of Puerto Deseado to Colonia Las Heras in Santa Cruz Province. The 283-km broad gauge railway was established with the intention of encouraging settlement in Patagonia, which was sparsely populated at that point. The railway also contributed to the commercialisation of wool in the region.
The railway was considered the southernmost passenger railway in the world, due to other lines of the region focusing on exploitation and transport of natural resources (such as the Comodoro Rivadavia Railway did with petroleum) rather than operating passenger services.