Bolivia Railway Assessment

GLCSC LCA BOLIVIA Mapa ferroviario zona andina 140930

GLCSC LCA BOLIVIA Mapa Ferroviario zona oriental 140930

According to the current mode of operation, the State retains ownership of all routes and fixed installations, as well as perceives tax rates for the grant, license and rental of rolling stock; on its part the awarded company commits itself to manage services according to the requirements stipulated in the contract, fulfilling the regulations of the Superintendence of Transport.

The current railway system in Bolivia is managed by the private sector, according to contracts signed by the Bolivian Government

For information on Bolivia railway network contact details, please see the following link:

4.1 Bolivia Government Contact List

4.10 Bolivia Railway Company Contact List

Travel Time Matrix

Railway Companies and Consortia

Andean Railway Company S.A. established in Bolivia, administered and operated by its own workers and executives, autonomous and private.

Freight rates as well as passenger rates are regulated and approved by the Superintendence of Transport. These have ranges according to the type of load, on the basis of the load classifier and directly based on the distance.

Freight rates are currently below the maximum reference rates approved by the Superintendence of Transport, due to land transport competition, looking for a better positioning of services, the type of product, tonnage, distance, regularity of service, rotation of the rolling stock and the uptake of larger volumes, which use other transportation means.

The strategy to compete with road transport, despite the comparative advantage of the transport door to door, its low fixed costs and its informality, is that FCA can move large volumes of load and search the flexibility to perform the bimodal transport.

They have the authorization of the Vice Ministry of Transport, enabling them as OTM (Multimodal Transport Operator) and the Foreign Trade Operator License issued by the National Customs.

Capacity Table

Key Route Information

Rigid attachments - which get nailed or screwed into the sleeper/heavy beam.

Elastic fasteners-the Pandrol Clips consist of a sleeper anchor element and an elastic element that works under combined bending and torsion, manufactured of high quality steel bar.

The Clip is applied parallel to the rail and its placement and removal is done with a lag.                                                                                                                               

Uyuni Workshop: The main activity is oriented to the maintenance and repair of the equipment being towed from the Park of the company (in general cargo wagons).

Viacha Workshop: specializing in repair, maintenance and overhaul of locomotives, diesel, electric LDE

Key Stations

Empresa Ferroviaria Oriente S.A.

Ferroviaria Oriental S.A. operates in the East of Bolivia, connecting the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra with Argentina via Yacuiba - Pocitos; with Brazil through Puerto Suárez - Quijarro - Corumbá; and with the North, Warnes and Montero. The railway network has a 1,244 kms of wide meter gauge, of which 643 km correspond to the Eastern sector, 539 kilometers to the Southern sector and 62 kilometers to the Northern Sector of the Department. The network allows access to the Eastern Atlantic ports of: Santos and Paranagua, in Brazil, by this sector through the routes of ALL (America Latina Logistics); and the ports of Buenos Aires and Rosario, in Argentina, by the Southern sector in connection with Belgrano Cargas. Furthermore, the Paraguay – Paraná Waterway, on the basis of an intermodal transportation system allows access to the same ports of Argentina and the port of Nueva Palmira, Uruguay. Finally, in the southern sector by the passage of Salta to Socompa in connection with the route of Belgrano Cargas, you can access the port of Antofagasta in Chile.

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS- GE LOCOMOTIVES-in November of 2013, Ferroviaria Oriental purchased locomotives from General Electric; these are three C23EMP locomotives of latest generation which will be delivered by the end of 2014. The Units come equipped with a turbo diesel engine with electronic injection, microprocessor, remote synchronization system and events register camera.

PURCHASE OF WAGONS- As an investment, 80 flat carts were bought from the company Ferrocarriles Españoles de Via Estrecha - FEVE, and 100 containers of 40 feet each were transformed into removable grain wineries, with a fast download design for exclusive use in transportation of soybean grain, strengthening the loading capacity in 120,000 additional tons per year for the next management.

INFRASTRUCTURE- In 2013 there were improvements to the infrastructure in different parts of the network, covering works and projects in the Northern, Southern and Eastern sectors. Executed trail works included the placement of 36.196 sleepers of wood, the addition of 159.838 elastic fasteners (clips) and the incorporation of 20.902 m3 of ballast, thus eliminating deficient trail sections and sectors and continuing with the process of replacing the sections of track over land by others with ballast, thus improving the bearing track capacity and giving greater stability and drainage capacity.

The mechanized leveling of 170 Km was done in the Eastern sector, achieving substantial improvement of geometry (leveling and alignment) of the trail. In addition, there was an intensive improvement and maintenance of 88 km of the route in three sectors. The Change of Rails Project totaled 2.5 Km of change of rails of 90 pounds per yard, which replaced 65 lb/yd of rails. The program of aluminum  thermal welding designed to provide comfort and security to the movement of trains, recorded a total of 10.6 Km.

General Information

Total Length =  1,244 km

Per branch:

North Sector:  Santa Cruz – Montero  =  62 km

South Sector:  Santa Cruz – Yacuiba (border with Argentina)  =  539 km

East Sector:  Santa Cruz – Puerto Quijarro (border with Brasil)  =  643 km

Stations:

South Sector:  Santa Cruz – Abapo – Charagua – Boyuibe – Villa Montes – Yacuiba

East  Sector:  Santa Cruz – Tres Cruces – San Jose de Chiquitos – Robore – Puerto Suarez – Puerto Quijarro