The train crash at Once station in the heart of Buenos Aires, with forty-nine dead and more than six-hundred injured, is the worst in Argentina in more than forty years.

But for many it was an accident waiting to happen. The opposition, rail users and the train unions have for a long time accused the government and the private train companies of under-investing in the rail network.

A whole series of smaller accidents last year, in which a total of twenty three people were killed, perhaps acted as a warning of what was to come.

There is a noticeable difference in the conditions of the carriages serving the affluent northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, with cushioned seats and air-conditioning, and those serving the poorer regions to the south and west of the capital, with broken windows and seats and criminals operating among the packed crowds. The train involved in this crash had come from the west.

One opposition politician said: "They travel little better than cattle."

The Transport Minister, Juan Pablo Schiavi, was quick on the scene to deflect any responsibility away from his government.

Three-hundred and twenty trains use that line every day, he told reporters, and they're all fitted with GPS which monitor the speed of the trains every ten seconds.

This particular train was traveling at 26kph as it arrived at the station from the outlying province of Buenos Aires at the peak of the rush-hour with commuters packed tight on their first day back at work after a four-day long holiday weekend.

The minister speculated that the brakes weren't working and said that the driver was very young. "He was tired," he said. Accidents happen, continued Schiavi, around the world. And he listed incidents in Spain Germany, Ukraine, Italy and the United States.

Opposition leader, Ricardo Alfonsin, talked about a lamentable tragedy. "I hope the Transport minister will go to Congress," he said. "And there explain publicly the reasons for the accident and answer questions about the concessions given to the train companies by the government and the controls exercised over them."

Opposition senator, Jaime Linares, said the tragedy could have been avoided. "There's a chain of responsibility," he said, "from the government to the transport regulator on to the previous transport secretary, Ricardo Jaime, and now this one, Juan Pablo Schiavi."

Edgardo Reinoso of the train workers' union told Reuters that he blamed the owners of the train, Trenes de Buenos Aires, for the accident. "It's known for insufficient maintenance and improvisation," he said. The company expressed its deep regret over the accident

The Argentine rail system, much of which was built by the British at the end of the nineteenth century, carries about 400million passengers a year making it the busiest in South America.

Most of it was privatised in the 1990s under the government of Carlos Menem in the hope of attracting investment in its crumbling infrastructure.

But the new private rail companies didn't invest as much as expected since so much of their income came from state subsidies.

This latest tragedy will provoke a long, hard look at the state of Argentina's railway system. Meanwhile, the passengers have little option but to keep taking the trains and demanding improvements.

Related reading:
Argentina file, beyondbrics