In New York, there's a certain type of person called a "foamer." This is someone that's so into the Subway, he (and it's always a he) inevitably starts foaming at the mouth while talking about it. Yes folks, only in New York. My personal theory on these folks is that they're the people who would be all into cars if they were from a place where everyone had cars. Instead, they get into their particular mode of transport.

Anyway, I'm an amateur foamer at best, but enough of one to ride all of the Buenos Aires Subte (subway) and report back. If you're not at least an amateur foamer yourself, you're going to find this entry pretty boring.

The Subte started in 1913, and contains five lines. The system is entirely underground, except for a trolly line called the Premetro (which starts from the end of Linea E in the Southeast part of town, and runs through resembling the South Bronx of 1979, terminating at a huge Public Housing project). It´s designed much as any waterfront city's system is - spoke and hub. Four lines run from downtown (which is the Eastern part of the City) out to the West, and one runs North/South through downtown, with a few main downtown transfer points between the 5 lines. The East/West line are (North to South) Linea D, B, A, and E. The North/South line is Linea C. All the lines are 2-track systems, with the track beds being gravel (much like a standard outdoor rail trackbed), except for Linea E. Some lines run off of third rail power, while others run on overhead catanery wires. I don't believe there's any track connections between the lines, but I might be wrong. There's a couple spurs I saw that I think are just layups, but they might have been connections. At one of the stations (Plaza Miserere), there´s an interesting cross-platform connection to (I think) a commuter rail terminus, and also track connections between the two. Think something like the Jay Street station, if the A/C line were a communter rail line, and the F was the regular subway.

None of the lines take more than about 30 minutes to ride completely. A ride costs 70 centavos (about a quarter US), and in yet another horrid Urban Planning error of Buenos Aires, there's no weekly or monthly pass, or even discount for buying multiple rides. This leads to everyone buying one ride at a time, and immediately throwing the ticket (a fairly large and sturdy thing)away. The result is a ton of litter and wasted paper.

Because the Brits designed the system, the lines run the wrong way - against traffic. Meaning that while you drive on the right side of the street here, the trains underneath the street run on the left side. Not a big deal, although it does tend to throw my internal compass off a bit.

There's been some extentions of the lines recently (with the new stations being much larger and boasting things like stained-glass windows, and art or history exhibits), with more in the works. Linea A is currently undergoing an extension using the old cut-and-cover method, where a street is dug up, track is laid, and the trench is covered back over with the new street. This is interesting because it´s a method that in most cities saw it´s heyday about 100 years ago (most new subway now are drilled far beneath the street surface). The most ambitious new project though, is Linea H, another North/South line being built about a mile west of Linea C that will connect the four East/West lines. This was supposed to be open well before the time I got here, but the financial crisis has continualy delayed its opening. As of now, 2006 is the projected date. I´ve looked extensively for evidence of the new line in the stations that are going to be transfer points, but can´t find anything.

By far the funnest line to ride is Linea A. This is the oldest of the lines, and has super old-school wooden subway cars. You can even open the doors when the train is in motion. Like the rest of the cars, there's no air conditioning, so you can also open the windows - including the railfan window up front. Linea A also has the only place in the system where I saw tunnel graffiti. The lack of tunnel graffiti surprised me. A lot of the system has little-to-no clearance, but there are some extra spaces in the system, tunnel access seems pretty easy, and some of the lines even have no third rail to worry about. In addition, this town seems pretty permissive of graffiti, and the cops are not exactly the most professional force in the world (more on that later). On the other hand, the system is only open from about 7 until 11, and there isn't really a time when the platforms are deserted and you can hit the tunnels totally incognito. And for all I know there's plainclothes cops in every station (nobody jumps the turnstyle either). The one place where I saw grafitti I'm thinking probably has easy out-of-system access from an emergency exit or something.

For some pictures (and a decent wait for them to load I think) - check these links out.

Linea A trains

Stations