232 ROADS AND RAILWAYS 



Rosario in 1912 and so had escaped the need to 

 transfer its export-traihc at Cordoba to the broad- 

 gauge, began immediately afterwards to effect a direct 

 communication with Buenos Aires (Central Cordoba, 

 extension to Buenos Aires, opened in 1913). The 

 line from Rosario to Buenos Aires of the Province of 

 Buenos Aires Company also serves to carry trains of 

 the Province of Santa Fe Company, which is closely 

 associated with it. The medium-gauge lines of Meso- 

 potamia also have effected a communication with 

 Buenos Aires by means of a ferry-boat that plies on 

 the Parana between Ibicuy and Zarate, and by using 

 a section of the Buenos Aires Central. 



The concentration of narrow-gauge and medium- 

 gauge lines seemed to be issuing in a complete fusion 

 of their interests in 1913. The Argentine Railway 

 Company got control of the lines of Entre Rios, 

 Corrientes and the Paraguay. It promoted the 

 development and extension of the Central Cordoba, 

 and it also had large interests in the French com- 

 panies of the Buenos Aires and Santa Fe provinces. 

 All the narrow-gauge lines would have concentrated 

 in its hands if it had been able to get the State rail- 

 way. The broad-gauge line from Rosario to Puerto 

 Belgrano had, as its interest conflicted with those of 

 the great broad-gauge Enghsh systems, joined the 

 narrow-gauge group engineered by the Argentine rail- 

 way. But the amalgamation attempted by the 

 Argentine railways did not succeed, and, after its 

 failure, the companies it had temporarily brought 

 together resumed their independence. 



The river-route of the Parana has sometimes been 

 an auxiliary, at other times a rival, of the railways. 



Until the line from Buenos Aires to Rosario was 

 opened in 1886, the navigation of the Parana was 

 the only link between the system of northern Argentina 

 and that of the Buenos Aires province. Before the 

 line was completed, the company had established a 



