page_title: History of rail transport in Bolivia
section_title: Second phase (1900–1929)
hierarchical_section_title: History of rail transport in Bolivia / Second phase (1900–1929)
caption_attribution_description: Maestranza principal en Uyuni, Bolivia, circa 1925.
context_page_description: The history of rail transport in Bolivia began in the 1870s after almost three decades of failed efforts to build railroads that integrate the country, and is associated in its origin to the development of mining. The exploitation of saltpeter in Antofagasta began the laying of the first railway lines in Bolivia. It is the mining of silver, however, that promotes the construction of a railroad 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 the advance of the railways, forming what is now known as the Andean or Western network. The eastern network, on the other hand, develops 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 of the Pacific and then of the Atlantic.
  Five phases can be distinguished in the history of the railways of Bolivia:
context_section_description: Slightly less than half the total of Bolivia's current rail network was built in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The increase in the construction of railroads of the early twentieth century was necessary for the political survival of liberals and republicans. The railroads then had a halo of modernity and development that made them indispensable in any program of government. They were conceived as an integrating factor that would allow the colonization of vast territories. In order to regulate the process of railway expansion, the government of Juan Misael Saracho promulgated of General Law of Railroads the 3rd October 1910.
  Given the political and economic necessity of building railroads, its financing accounted for approximately 40% (29 million dollars) of Bolivia's external debt between 1900 and 1930, which amounted to 72 million dollars. The railroads were also financed with indemnities received after the Pacific and Acre wars. Product of the Treaty of Petropolis (1903), Bolivia received two million Pound sterling, which formed the basis of the resources used by the Bolivian Railway (formed in 1906 as part of the Speyer loan) to build the main railways. By the Treaty of Peace with Chile in 1904, the Chilean government undertook to build the Arica–La Paz railway, completed in 1913, thereby connecting the country's political and economic center with Arica, a natural port for Upper Peru since colonial times. There were also private companies that invested in railroads. It is estimated that the railways absorbed 40% (73.4 million dollars) of the foreign capital that entered Bolivia between 1900 and 1930. These capitals were British, American and French. By 1925, more than 50% of the lines in operation had been laid with British capital.
  In this second phase, two stages are identified in the construction of railways. In the first (1900–1915) railroads were built that intensified the connection of several regions of the country with the Pacific. They were oriented to the foreign market and therefore associated with mining. Two additional exits were made to the Pacific: the Guaqui–La Paz railway (98 km) completed in 1905 and the Arica–La Paz railway (233 km) completed in 1913. In addition, Oruro was communicated with Viacha (237 km) in 1913 (Line that only arrived at La Paz in 1917); and two important branches were built that had great impact on the mining regions: Río Mulatos–Potosí River (174 km) in 1912 and Uyuni–Atocha (90 km) in 1913.
  In the second stage, starting in 1915, the main objective was to integrate domestic markets. The interests that promoted them and their potential beneficiaries were definitely not directly linked to the mining sector. Therefore, the regional elites had to put pressure on the state for the construction of these railroads. The construction of more railroads began to be completed. First, the La Paz–Yungas railroad (with Beni as final destination), started in 1915 and abandoned after less than 80 km of construction in the 1950s due to lack of financing; then the Sucre–Potosí railroad which began in 1916 and could only be completed in 1935; and finally the Cochabamba–Santa Cruz railway, which began in 1928 and remained unfinished. In this period also began (1915) and concluded (1925) the railroad Atocha–Villazón (206 km) that communicated Uyuni with Argentina. Another railroad completed was from Oruro to Cochabamba (205 km). Although it was initiated in the first stage of this period (1906), its conclusion in 1917 marks a transition between the phase of connection with the outside and that of internal integration. Indeed, this railway was the first major integration effort between two major cities9 and the most expensive of the railroads built in this period (see Table 1). Rodríguez Ostria synthesizes the arrival of the railroad from Oruro to Cochabamba as follows:
  — ... After twenty-five years of waiting and conflict (1892–1917), forty thousand vociferous people from the city and neighboring towns contemplated the arrival of the first locomotive on July 26, 1917, which, presumably
caption: FCAB, main Maestranza in Uyuni, 1925.
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