This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series
Interactive map of the Bolivian rail network (2014)
The history of rail transport in Bolivia began in the 1870s after almost three decades of failed efforts to build railroads to integrate the country, mining was the driving force for the construction of railways. The need to transport saltpeter to the coast triggered the first railway lines in Bolivia. It was the silver mining, however, that drove the construction of a railway from the Pacific coast to the high plateau during the nineteenth century. Later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, tin mining gave a new impetus to railway building, forming what is now known as the Andean or Western network. The eastern network, on the other hand, developed between the years 1940 and 1960 and is financed in exchange for oil through agreements with Argentina and Brazil. Bolivia being a landlocked country, the railways played a fundamental role and the history of its railroads is the history of the country's efforts to reach first ports on the Pacific coast and then the Atlantic.
Five phases can be distinguished in the history of the railways of Bolivia:
1870–1900: Silver mining companies built their own railways for ore transport.
1900 and 1930: The greatest expansion, financed by foreign investment. In this period connections were made with Peru and Argentina, as well as between the Bolivia's main cities of the high plateau and valleys forming the Western network.
1930–1964: Increasingly independent operations by foreign railway companies, mining companies and state railways. After 1940, government policy gave priority to the roads over railways. Nevertheless,railways are constructed to Argentina and Brazil creating Eastern network.
1964–1966: Nationalization of the railways, the creation of the National State Railways Company [es] (ENFE) in 1964 with a policy role in the development of the country.
1997–2013: The privatization of the railways through the capitalization [es] process.
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