Ferroviaria Oriental

The Bolivian rail network has had a peculiar development throughout its history; owing to losses of land, prestige and credit rating due to the failure of the War of the Pacific, railway development came late to Bolivia. The demand for mineral wealth and communication to the inland city of La Paz, encouraged foreign investors, mainly British, to construct railways. However, into this mix came the experience of railway building in adjacent Peru, whereby overbuilding of standard gauge line across the high Andes meant that Peru went bankrupt.

Lines were built to furnish the nitrate deposits at Arica, and later at Antofagasta. The rapidly expanding tin and silver mining in Bolivia meant that railway building projects were given a big impetus from the 1920s. Many of the lines remained unfinished until the 1950s. Bolivia had a mixture of lines and gauges, 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) (standard) and 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) (meter gauge) were the norm; as were British-built engines. The railway lines radiated out from the mines to the coast, and did not reflect the population centres and their need to move. Consequently, it was in the mid-century that lines were built across the high plain to Argentina and into the jungle of eastern Bolivia. The disconnected nature of travel due to the Andes, Lake Titicaca, gauge change, frontiers, and lasting resentment with the neighbours over territory loss, meant that railways in Bolivia were incomplete. Most railways in Argentina are 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) gauge and thus problematic with neighbouring Bolivia. A line was made connecting the two across the Gran Chaco.

All railways in Bolivia are now 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) Metre gauge. The Antofagasta to Uyuni line was originally 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge.

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